By Helen Coster
(Reuters) -U.S. President Donald Trump’s administration is taking steps to dismantle the Department of Education, the White House said on Tuesday, part of Trump’s bid to shrink the federal government’s role in schooling in favor of more control by the states.
As part of its dismantling, the department announced new partnerships with the Departments of Labor, Interior, Health and Human Services to share some of the functions it currently performs.
It said in a press release on Tuesday 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.”
In March, Trump said he intended to deliver on a campaign promise to conservatives by calling for the department’s closure.
“We’re going to be returning education, very simply, back to the states where it belongs,” Trump said before signing an executive order to close the department to the “maximum extent” allowed by law.
Created by Congress in 1979, the Department of Education’s main roles include administering college loans, tracking student achievement and enforcing civil rights in schools. It also provides federal funding to help districts with a high percentage of needy children and to assist students with disabilities.
Federal law prohibits the department from controlling school operations, including curriculum, instruction and staffing. Authority over these decisions belongs to state and local governments, which provide more than 85% of public school funding.
The department’s Republican critics have portrayed the department as a symbol of bureaucratic waste, underlining the need for smaller federal government in favor of greater state power.
(Reporting by Helen Costas in New York; Additional reporting by Costas Pitas; Editing by Frank McGurty and Daniel Wallis)
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