Dismantling The U S Department Of Education What It Means For

The U.S. Department of Education building is photographed in Washington, Dec. 3, 2024. (AP Photo/Jose Luis Magana, File) WASHINGTON (AP) — The Education Department is breaking off several of its main offices and giving their responsibilities to other federal agencies, an early look at how President Donald Trump could fulfill his campaign... Offices that serve the nation’s schools and colleges would go to departments ranging from Labor to Interior.

Education officials say the moves won’t affect the money Congress gives states, schools and colleges. They didn’t say whether current department staff would keep their jobs. Since he took office, Trump has called for the dismantling of the Education Department, saying it has been overrun by liberal thinking. Agency leaders have been making plans to parcel out its operations to other departments, and in July the Supreme Court upheld mass layoffs that halved the department’s staff. In recent days, Education Secretary Linda McMahon has started a public campaign for the end of her department, making the case on social media that Education’s grantmaking and question-answering functions could be better handled... On the Tuesday, December 2, 2025 episode of The Excerpt podcast: Trump’s latest Education Department moves target some of the agency's most important programs.

From Title I to special education to student aid, we break down what’s moving, what’s staying and what the changes mean for millions of students. Zach Schermele joins USA TODAY's The Excerpt to unpack it all. Hit play on the player below to hear the podcast and follow along with the transcript beneath it. This transcript was automatically generated, and then edited for clarity in its current form. There may be some differences between the audio and the text. Podcasts: True crime, in-depth interviews and more USA TODAY podcasts right here

President Donald Trump's quest to dismantle the Department of Education went into high gear late last month, with six interagency agreements that redistributed longstanding functional areas of the department. Well, Congress finally caved in and let Trump abolish the ED. Hello and welcome to USA Today's The Excerpt. I'm Dana Taylor. Today is Tuesday, December 2nd, 2025. Here to help me dig into all of the changes at the Education Department, now joined by USA Today Congress reporter, Zach Schermele.

Thanks so much for coming back, Zach. While only Congress can completely act as a federal agency, the Supreme Court has allowed the White House to move forward for now with mass education department layoffs. Walk me through the latest changes. With the Trump administration forging ahead on the president’s pledge to gut the federal agency, states and schools from elementary through postsecondary education are bracing for disruptions to funding and programs. Photo credit: U.S. Department of Education/Flickr/CC BY 4.0

President Donald Trump’s pledge to dismantle the U.S. Department of Education took another big leap forward on Nov. 18, with the announcement that the bulk of existing programs – from K-12 through postsecondary – would be parceled out to other federal agencies. The move is part of the Trump administration’s plan to “return education to the states,” a phrase The Washington Post’s Laura Meckler (among others) argues is a misnomer. Take a look at Education Week’s handy guide to discover where existing programs are being moved (K-12 and college programs to the Department of Labor, for example). The Hechinger Report is also tracking President Trump’s orders on education issues more broadly.

The Guardian has reported on the difficulty of working at the education department and the low morale there in the wake of this and other efforts to dismantle the department this year. There’s been no announcement yet on where special education programs would land, if they’re moved at all. See the Education Writers Association’s Q&A with the executive director of the nonprofit advocacy organization Council of Parent Attorneys and Advocates (COPAA) for more on the special education ramifications. The DoE is cutting staff, halting grants and pressuring schools on various administration priorities. Washington Post writer Laura Meckler discusses its destabilizing effect on the education system. This is FRESH AIR.

I'm Tonya Mosley. The Department of Education is reportedly gutting its workforce. In addition to the more than 1,300 workers who were fired on Tuesday, more than 600 have accepted separation packages or were fired last month during their probationary period. This leaves the department to roughly half of its workforce, which is responsible for enforcing civil rights laws in schools, supplying student loans and grants and tracking student achievement. These new layoffs come as President Donald Trump calls to eliminate the department altogether. At the heart of Trump's effort is a plan to consolidate what he describes as waste within the government, vowing to cut federal funding for schools and colleges that promote, quote, "critical race theory...

Department of Education also sent letters to 60 colleges and universities it says are under investigation for violations relating to alleged antisemitic harassment against Jewish students during pro-Palestinian protests on campuses nationwide. Joining us to talk about all of this is Laura Meckler, a national education writer for The Washington Post, who covers news, politics and the people shaping American schools. Her book, "Dream Town: Shaker Heights And The Quest For Racial Equity" is an examination of the ideals and realities of racial integration in her hometown of Shaker Heights, Ohio. Our conversation was recorded yesterday. MOSLEY: Let's start with the backstory behind the letter that was sent this week to the 60 colleges by the Department of Education for alleged violations relating to antisemitic harassment. Remind us of what this stems from.

MECKLER: Well, all of this stems from protests that broke out on campus following the October 7, 2023, Hamas attack on Israel, which was then, of course, followed by the war between Israel and... And, of course, there were, you know, very, very passionate, strong, angry protests at campuses all over the country. So there's been this tension that colleges have been facing - especially last academic year, to be honest, but to some extent this year, too - about how to balance the free speech rights... In some cases, they did not feel safe. And all of that was sort of stirring and quite active as President Trump was running for his second term. And then once he took office, he's taken a very strong step to try to essentially clamp down on colleges and force them, they would say, to take antisemitism seriously.

By COLLIN BINKLEY and ANNIE MA, AP Education Writers WASHINGTON (AP) — The Education Department is breaking off several of its main offices and giving their responsibilities to other federal agencies, an early look at how President Donald Trump could fulfill his campaign... Offices that serve the nation’s schools and colleges would go to departments ranging from Labor to Interior. Education officials say the moves won’t affect the money Congress gives states, schools and colleges. They didn’t say whether current department staff would keep their jobs. Since he took office, Trump has called for the dismantling of the Education Department, saying it has been overrun by liberal thinking.

Agency leaders have been making plans to parcel out its operations to other departments, and in July the Supreme Court upheld mass layoffs that halved the department’s staff. In recent days, Education Secretary Linda McMahon has started a public campaign for the end of her department, making the case on social media that Education’s grantmaking and question-answering functions could be better handled... All Things Considered is the most listened-to, afternoon drive-time, news radio program in the country. Each show consists of the biggest stories of the day, thoughtful commentaries, and insightful features brought alive through sound. In the weeks since he took office, the Trump administration already has cut the department's staff in half and overhauled much of the department’s work. President Donald Trump speaks in the Roosevelt Room of the White House, Jan.

21, 2025, in Washington. (AP Photo/Julia Demaree Nikhinson, File) Moving to fulfill a campaign promise, President Donald Trump signed an executive order Thursday calling for the dismantling of the Education Department, an agency Republicans have talked about closing for decades. The order says Education Secretary Linda McMahon will, “to the maximum extent appropriate and permitted by law, take all necessary steps to facilitate the closure of the Department of Education and return authority over...

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