By Sheri Few for THE WASHINGTON TIMES
Just before Thanksgiving, Secretary of Education Linda McMahon announced six interagency partnerships to “return education to states.”
In reality, these partnerships simply transfer funding and programs from the Department of Education to other federal agencies, such as the departments of Labor, Interior, State, and Health and Human Services. Meanwhile, the Department of Education retains statutory responsibilities and oversight. This is not decentralization; it is bureaucratic reshuffling dressed up as reform.
The Trump administration’s approach mirrors The Heritage Foundation’s Project 2025 plan, which proposes scattering federal education programs across agencies rather than dismantling them. For more than a decade, U.S. Parents Involved in Education has advocated closing the Department of Education and ending federal mandates altogether. We even published a blueprint outlining how to restore parental and local control.
Ms. McMahon’s plan dilutes education policy within unrelated agencies and makes federal influence harder to track. It is the epitome of rearranging deck chairs on the Titanic.
