Trump administration unveils plan to try to dismantle Department of Education

by Shauneen Miranda, New Jersey Monitor

President Donald Trump’s administration took major steps Tuesday in trying to dismantle the U.S. Department of Education, announcing six total inter-agency agreements signed with other departments that will transfer several of its responsibilities to those agencies. 

The agreements — with the departments of Labor, State, Interior, Health and Human Services, and State — come as Trump has sought to take an axe to the 46-year-old department in his quest to return education “back to the states.” 

The move further fulfills a pledge Trump heavily campaigned on and later tapped Education Secretary Linda McMahon to carry out. 

The announcement also came as the U.S. Supreme Court in July allowed the Trump administration to temporarily proceed with mass layoffs and a plan to dramatically downsize the Education Department ordered earlier this year.

That plan — outlined in a March executive order Trump signed — called on McMahon to “take all necessary steps to facilitate the closure” of her own department.