McMahon to Congress: Make Education Dept Changes Permanent

Education Secretary Linda McMahon is calling on Congress to make changes at her department permanent.

"My purpose here is to speak directly to the American families, not just you, but to the American families, about the work this administration is doing in education to reverse our national decline with a hard reset of our educational system," McMahon said Thursday in a press briefing at the White House.

"That reset was a top campaign promise from President Trump to send education back to the states and end Washington's micromanagement of education once and for all.

"This week, we took the most decisive steps thus far to make good on this promise to you," she added.

The Education Department on Tuesday announced new partnerships with four other Cabinet departments — Labor, State, Interior, and Health and Human Services — to share or transfer some of the functions it currently performs.

It said in a press release on Tuesday that the new approach would "streamline federal education activities on the legally required programs, reduce administrative burdens, and refocus programs and activities to better serve students and grantees."

The actions announced by the White House on Tuesday do not require congressional approval, but without it another administration will be able to cancel the agreements.

McMahon said the "inter agency agreements to cut our own bureaucratic bloat are a key step in our efforts to shift educational authority from Washington, D.C., to your state education agency, your local superintendent, your local school board, entities that are accountable to you and we encourage parents to always be involved. Cutting federal bureaucracy is never a popular move among DC insiders."

The long-anticipated moves elicited strong reactions, including anger from Democrats who say the administration is circumventing Congress. Republicans celebrated the announcement as tangible progress in the goal of shrinking the role of the federal government.

"I've talked to dozens of members of Congress to explain to them exactly what we're doing, to bring them up to speed and to say to them, 'Look, when we have completed some of these transfers that work incredibly well, then we will be looking to Congress to codify those,'" McMahon said.

Reuters contributed to this report.

• Trump Admin to Shuffle, Weaken Education Dept.
• Nonprofit Poll: Majority Back Closing Education Dept