Secretary of Education Linda McMahon questioned the need for the Department of Education, which is expected to announce the transfer of several duties to other federal agencies on Tuesday afternoon. File Photo by Aaron Schwartz/UPI | License Photo
Unnamed officials with the Department of Education say its leaders will announce the transfer of some duties to other federal agencies Tuesday amid the department’s downsizing.
Unnamed sources told Politico, CNN and The Washington Post that the duty transfers will be announced sometime on Tuesday afternoon.
Education Secretary Linda McMahon cited the 43-day federal government shutdown as evidence that the department is unnecessary.
“Forty-three days of a government shutdown, and schools stayed open, students went to class and teachers got paid,” she said Monday night. “Makes you wonder … do we really need [the Education Department] at all?”
McMahon also posted a short video of prior presidents and governmental leaders questioning the need for involving the federal government in public education.
An unnamed congressional aide told CNN the anticipated changes will affect the offices of Civil Rights, Indian Education, Elementary and Secondary Education, Postsecondary Education and Special Education.
Education Department personnel with each office likewise will transfer to the respective federal agencies as their duties are transferred, CNN reported.
Despite the duties and staff transferring to other agencies, the Education Department will retain oversight over those federal employees.
While many anticipate special education services to be among the duties moved to one or more agencies, they will remain with the Education Department for now, according to The Washington Post.
President Donald Trump has said he wants to dissolve the Education Department and, which was created by Congress in 1979, but only an act of Congress can officially end it.
Trump wants to return the department’s duties to respective states and end the department’s annual cost for taxpayers, which was $190.64 billion in 2025 and represented 1.4% of the federal government’s budget for that fiscal year.
Meanwhile, McMahon has said she will do what she can to downsize the department and erode its duties and influence from within.
