The Education Department is being dismantled. Here’s what that means

AP News ^ | Updated 4:25 PM CST, November 18, 2025 | COLLIN BINKLEY and ANNIE MA

[E. Pluribus Unum]

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 pledge to close the department entirely.

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 by states and other federal agencies.

While the necessity of the department is up for debate, it’s also unclear how well-equipped other state and federal departments are to take over the Education Department’s responsibilities. The department sends billions of dollars to schools and colleges and helps decipher complex federal laws. It will be a test for the administration: Can the department be shut down smoothly, or will rural and low-income kids and students with disabilities — the populations that most rely on federal education support — be impacted?

Here’s what the Education Department currently handles, where its responsibilities will go to other federal agencies and what will stay the same.

Money for schools and colleges

While American schools are funded primarily by state and local money, the Education Department serves as a conduit for billions of...

[Svartalfiar]

The department sends billions of dollars to schools and colleges and helps decipher complex federal laws.

And where is that power enumerated?

[TBP]

About bloody well time.

[Reily]

Without legislation eliminating it, the next Rat administration will just pump money back into it. It will be revived like it never went away and probably be revived with a vengeance!