Trump's Education Department Transfers Have Major Limits. What Do We Need?

Neal McCluskey

The Trump administration has announced that the US Department of Education (DoED) is sending day-to-day responsibility over several of its functions to other departments. This is a small step in the right direction—DoED must end. But it is crucial not to lose sight of the much bigger, ultimate goal: ending all unconstitutional and unproductive federal meddling in education.

What Do We Get from Shipping DoED’s Parts Elsewhere?

The US Department of Education is unconstitutional. The Constitution gives the federal government only specific, enumerated powers, and authority over education is nowhere among them. Not only does the department run numerous unconstitutional programs, it is also a cabinet-level department, giving the secretary of education direct access to the president. Before the department’s creation in 1979, most federal education functions were housed in an office within the Department of Health, Education, and Welfare. The National Education Association, the nation’s largest teacher union, fought for the department’s creation to wield greater influence.

Dismantling DoED but keeping its functions in other departments would eliminate this direct presidential access, lower the profile of the person in charge of federal education programs by reducing them below secretary level, and bolster the symbolically crucial point that constitutionally, the federal government should not be in education. It would also dismantle a mismanaged agency that has failed to complete audits for the last three years, in part due to its infamous mishandling of its biggest responsibility: college student financial aid.

DoED also has had little discernable positive effect on educational outcomes, at least as measured by the federal government’s own National Assessment of Educational Progress. The chart below shows changes in the percentage of high school seniors hitting “proficiency” or surpassing a middle benchmark—depending on the test—as well as percentage changes in real total and federal spending per pupil since the department’s birth in 1980. Performance is basically stagnant, while spending is appreciably higher.

Importantly, many things affect standardized test scores, and such scores are hardly the end all, be all of education. It is also not clear how much higher academic achievement should be per additional dollar spent. Finally, moving federal programs to new departments might not improve matters, though it would be difficult to do much worse.

What Do We Get from Shipping Parts Elsewhere with Interagency Agreements?

The Trump administration made a trade-off in how it sent off the parts of the department. By using interagency agreements, the administration was able to move big parts, possibly without breaking the law. Several statutes appear to allow the Education Department, essentially, to contract with other agencies to provide resources or services, with DoED maintaining ultimate responsibility for the function. There might be a question of how much can be transferred by interagency agreement, but this move seems less likely to be overturned by a court than an outright transfer.

Are the Parts Being Shipped to the Right Places?

All of the moves are logical, with the proviso that most of these jobs should not exist at all:

• Elementary and Secondary Education to the Department of Labor: A major purpose of education is to give students skills and knowledge to be productive workers. This can be done by entering college, or career and technical education options in K‑12. These functions could have also gone to Health and Human Services, which deals with child welfare and was basically the old home of education.
• Postsecondary Education to Labor: These programs, which largely fund institutions of higher education, not students, also make logical sense in the Department of Labor. For the vast majority of people who go to college, a top goal is to get a job. It also makes sense to keep higher education with K‑12.
• Indian Education to the Department of the Interior: Interior already runs the Bureau of Indian Education. It is logical to locate all Indian education functions in the department that has primary responsibility for working with Native Americans.
• Foreign Medical Accreditation to the Department of Health and Human Services: “Health” is the first word in Health and Human Services. It makes sense to place a job of determining if doctors from other countries are qualified to practice medicine in the United States at the department.
• Childcare Access Means Parents in School to Health and Human Services: This program is focused on providing childcare for college students with children. It is logical that the department that houses Head Start—the primary federal early childhood program—would handle this.
• International Education and Foreign Language Studies to the State Department: Programs focused internationally are clearly in the State Department’s wheelhouse.

What Else Could Have Moved?

Everything could be moved, but here are a couple of big ones currently staying put:

• Federal Student Aid: The biggest part of the Department of Education, oversees student loans, Pell Grants, and Work Study. It could have been moved to the Treasury Department, which already has a role in collecting student loans, or the Small Business Administration, though it is not as well-situated to handle student loans as Treasury.
• Office for Civil Rights: This could have moved to the Department of Justice, which has primary responsibility for civil rights enforcement and has an existing education section.

What Will the Savings Be?

Moving day-to-day responsibility over these functions will probably not achieve appreciable savings by streamlining bureaucracy. The programs are not supposed to change in terms of what they do or their reporting requirements.

What Needs to Be Done?

Eliminating the Department of Education is important, and the Trump administration’s moves get us a little closer by reducing DoED’s footprint. But until whole programs and functions are eliminated, moving them is largely rearranging Titanic deck chairs; money will continue to be wasted and bureaucracy maintained. Based on constitutionality—“what is the federal government authorized to do?”—the following is all that should remain among current DoED’s responsibilities, along with where they should probably reside:

• Civil Rights Enforcement: Under the 14th Amendment the federal government is charged with stopping state and local government discrimination in their provision of education. Again, this should go to the Department of Justice.
• Indian Education: Through the treaty power, the federal government has authority to work with Indian tribes. Again, Interior.
• Impact Aid: This is funding to compensate school districts that have federal lands in their boundaries, such as military bases, which often include children and cannot be taxed. It is arguably constitutional under defense or territory provisions in the Constitution. It could go under Interior or the Department of Defense.
• The District of Columbia Opportunity Scholarship Program: This private school choice program serves families in DC, over which the federal government has exclusive jurisdiction. This could go to Treasury or Health and Human Services.
• Gallaudet and Howard Universities: Both are in the District of Columbia and funding could come through Treasury or Health and Human Services.

Everything other than the above Department of Education functions should be phased out by Congress, perhaps over four years to allow schools and families to adjust. The Constitution, and truly returning power to the people and states, demands it.