The Labor Department will operate federal workforce education programs under the supervision of Education Department officials as the Trump administration works to eliminate the latter agency.
According to a Labor Department announcement, the joint effort “marks a major step in shifting management of select Education Department programs to partner agencies.”
Labor officials will assume the daily management of federally funded adult education, family literacy, and career and technical education programs as part of a broader Trump administration push to redirect federal education funds to state lawmakers and skilled labor needs.
“The current structure with various federal agencies each managing pieces of the federal workforce portfolio is inefficient and duplicative,” said Education Secretary Linda McMahon. “Support from the Department of Labor in administering the Department of Education’s workforce programs is a commonsense step in streamlining these programs to better serve students, families and educators.”
Labor Secretary Lori Chavez-DeRemer said the partnership will let her agency remedy the inefficiencies of a “bloated federal bureaucracy.”
“Under President Trump’s leadership, we are restructuring to meet the needs of our workforce,” she said. “I’m excited to team up with Secretary McMahon as we work together to provide states with clearer guidance, reduced regulatory burdens and more resources that are directly invested in opportunities for American workers.”
The agencies shared the news Tuesday, one day after a Supreme Court ruling lifted a lower court injunction against the plan.
They originally signed an interagency agreement on May 21, following Mr. Trump’s April 23 executive order that called for a coordinated “federal education and workforce system.”
New York immediately sued to block the partnership, leading a Massachusetts district judge to halt its implementation on May 22.
Monday’s 6-3 high court ruling also lifted that judge’s injunction against a Trump administration plan to fire over 1,300 employees and cut billions of dollars in grants at the Education Department.
In a statement to The Washington Times, Education Department spokeswoman Madison Biedermann confirmed that no employees will transfer from her agency to the Labor Department.
“DOL is taking on a greater role because workforce programs are better suited to be at DOL, but ED is still overseeing the programs and will maintain oversight,” Ms. Biedermann said. “We have outsourced no ED functions up to this point.”
The Trump administration has directed the Education Department to offload core functions to other agencies.
“The Federal Government has been running our Education System into the ground, but we are going to turn it all around by giving the Power back to the PEOPLE,” Mr. Trump said Monday in a social media post. “Thank you to the United States Supreme Court!”
The administration’s proposed layoffs would eliminate nearly half of the Education Department’s staff, following a March executive order to close the agency to the “maximum extent” allowed by law.
“The Supreme Court just greenlit Trump’s continued assault on the Department of Education and every student, teacher and parent across the country,” said New York Gov. Kathy Hochul, a Democrat.
Justice Sonia Sotomayor, joined in dissent by Justices Ketanji Brown Jackson and Elena Kagan, said the conservative majority’s decision Monday “will unleash untold harm, delaying or denying educational opportunities and leaving students to suffer from discrimination, sexual assault and other civil rights violations.”
Because Congress created the Education Department in a 1979 law, Mr. Trump requires congressional approval to sunset the agency entirely.
Many analysts believe he doesn’t have the votes to make that happen.
Conservatives have long called for the abolition of the Education Department, arguing that it promotes liberal social policies rather than preparing students for good-paying jobs.
Jeanne Allen, a former Reagan Education Department official, said the new Labor Department partnership “could help correct” a longstanding neglect of innovative workforce programs serving skilled trades like shipbuilding, home construction and culinary arts.
“Historically, federal workforce programs have favored traditional school districts and bureaucratic channels over innovators,” said Ms. Allen, founding CEO of the conservative Center for Education Reform.
