The Trump administration is shaking up the education system with an audacious plan to strip power from the Department of Education and hand it back to the states.
The latest move, announced on November 18, 2025, involves signing interagency agreements to transfer authority over various programs to other federal agencies, all part of a broader push to dismantle the department and prioritize state and local control, as Fox News reports.
Let’s rewind to March 2025, when President Donald Trump signed an executive order laying the groundwork for this seismic shift, aiming to close the Department of Education while ensuring services and benefits continue without interruption.
This wasn’t just a campaign talking point; it’s a core promise to reduce federal overreach and empower parents and communities to steer their children’s schooling.
Fast forward to November 18, and the administration rolled out six interagency agreements, roping in agencies like the Department of Labor and Health and Human Services to take on roles previously held by the Education Department.
For instance, the Department of Labor will now partner on elementary and secondary education initiatives and expand its oversight of higher education grants, a move pitched as fostering innovation and parental empowerment.
Meanwhile, the Department of the Interior steps up to manage the Indian Education program, while Health and Human Services tackles foreign medical accreditation and launches a new on-campus child care initiative for student parents.
Not to be left out, the State Department will oversee international education and foreign language programs, signaling a broad redistribution of responsibilities that once sat under one federal roof.
Secretary of Education Linda McMahon framed this as a victory for efficiency, stating, “The Trump Administration is taking bold action to break up the federal education bureaucracy and return education to the states,” in a press release on November 18, 2025.
But let’s not pretend this is all smooth sailing—Democrats are sounding the alarm, with House Minority Leader Hakeem Jeffries warning in March 2025 that shuttering the department “will harm millions of children in our nation’s public schools, their families and hardworking teachers.”
Jeffries isn’t wrong to point out that only Congress can officially close the department, established in 1979, and so far, legislative progress on this front has been slower than a school bus in rush hour.
Still, the administration is forging ahead by reallocating authority, sidestepping Congressional gridlock with these interagency maneuvers while arguing that federal bureaucracy has done more to bloat budgets than boost learning.
Adding fuel to the conservative argument, the recent 43-day government shutdown—the longest in U.S. history—hit during the fall semester, yet classrooms kept humming along without federal micromanagement.
If anything, this shutdown exposed how much of the Department of Education’s role is merely funneling funds, a task many believe states can handle without Washington’s heavy hand.
While critics fear larger class sizes and slashed programs, supporters of this shift see it as a long-overdue correction to a system that’s strayed too far from local priorities, proving that sometimes less federal oversight might just be the answer to better education.
