The Trump administration transfers six programs to the Education Department as it begins to disintegrate

The Trump administration is continuing its efforts to empty out the U.S. Department of Education by sending six programs to other federal agencies. The US Department of Education announced the changes in A press conference On Tuesday, November 18, 2025.

Although federal law assigns responsibility for these programs to the US Department of Education, US Secretary of Education Linda McMahon circumvents the law by entering into contracts with other federal agencies to operate the programs under the supervision of the US Department of Education.

These Interagency Agreements (IAAs) send the six programs to the following four agencies:

• US Department of Labor (DOL): Primary and Secondary Education Partnership and Post-Secondary Education Partnership. DOL will be responsible for grants related to Historically Black Colleges and Universities (HBCUs) and Minority Serving Institutes (MSIs), as well as grants focused on improving student success for college students.
• US Department of the Interior (DOI): Indian Education Partnership
• US Department of Health and Human Services (HHS): Foreign Medical Accreditation Partnership and Access to child care means having parents in school (CCAMPIS)
• US Department of State (DOS): International Partnership for Education and Foreign Language Studiesincluding programs administered under a Fulbright-Hays grant

US Department of Education staff who administer these programs will be transferred to the four federal agencies.

The agreements were signed on September 30, 2025, but have not been announced yet. It will take several months to transfer the programs to other federal agencies.

How interagency agreements will work

These are similar to interagency agreements deal Announced on May 21, 2025 to transfer workforce-related career, technical, and adult education programs to the U.S. Department of Labor, as required by the April 23, 2025 Resolution. Executive order. This affected programs funded under Titles I, II, and III of the Workforce Innovation and Opportunity Act (WIOA) and the Carl D. Perkins Career and Technical Education (Perkins V).

These changes do not save money, improve results, or improve accountability. There will be some savings as the Trump administration cancels some grants from these programs, but the cancellation of the grants occurred before the programs were transferred to other federal agencies.

It is unclear how these programs fulfill the President’s promise to return education to the states, as required by the President’s order on March 20, 2025. Executive orderas these programs will continue to be administered by federal agencies.

All of these changes are similar to what we expected with the general narrative of abolishing the Ministry of Education.

Change the focus on education

Tuesday’s announcement reflects a view that the purpose of education is primarily to prepare students for jobs and careers.

These changes do not affect the Federal Student Loan, FAFSA, Federal Pell Grant, or other programs administered by Federal Student Aid (FSA). The U.S. Department of Education is still exploring options for these programs, including the possibility of privatizing the federal student loan portfolio.

Federal student loan programs are undergoing a lot of changes due to the One Big Beautiful Bill Act (OBBBA). It will be difficult to transfer programs to another federal agency while these changes are still underway.

Although responsibility for education policy development will remain with the U.S. Department of Education, policy decisions are often closely linked to program implementation and operation. Organizing education programs into silos will lead to fragmentation of programs.

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