U.S. Education Secretary Linda McMahon is pressing ahead with plans to effectively dismantle the federal agency she leads, arguing that its core functions can be handled more efficiently elsewhere in government while preserving support for students.
According to Fox News, McMahon has moved aggressively to shift major responsibilities out of the Department of Education (ED) and into other Cabinet agencies, a strategy she describes as a real-time demonstration that Washingtons education bureaucracy has outlived its usefulness.
"Signing these interagency agreements means, in fact, that the Department of Education is contracting with these agencies to perform the functions that they've been given," McMahon told Fox News Digital.
"The first big block of work was transferred over to the Department of Labor."
The restructuring fulfills a central promise of Donald Trumps 2024 presidential campaign, in which he vowed to eliminate the ED and later signed an executive order directing his administration to begin dismantling the department.
As part of that effort, the Department of Labor (DOL) is assuming a central role in administering adult education, family literacy and career and technical education (CTE) programs governed by the Workforce Innovation and Opportunity Act (WIOA) and the Perkins Act.
Under the new framework, Labor will handle much of the day-to-day operational work, while the Department of Education retains statutory authority and oversight as it shifts services closer to states and grant recipients.
"It started first with CTE Career and Technical Education then K12 and finally higher education as well," McMahon said.
McMahon has been explicit that her objective is to prove to lawmakers that federal education support can continue without a standalone Cabinet-level department and the bureaucracy that comes with it.
"I've asked Congress with this proof of concept in these interagency agreements: 'Let me prove to you that it works,'" she said.
"Ultimately, Congress has to vote if we do close the Department of Education, and if I, in fact, am able to fire myself.
Hopefully, they will vote [for it], because I believe the outcome will be better for students, and that is the goal. That is certainly the president's goal."
In another major shift, ED has partnered with the Department of the Treasury, which has agreed to assume key operations related to federal student loans and the collection of defaulted debt.
The student loan transfer to Treasury, combined with the workforce and training initiative at DOL, forms part of a broader network of interagency agreements designed to redistribute EDs core functions across the executive branch.
According to Department of Education officials, these moves are intended to serve as a "proof of concept" to show Congress that essential education programs and funding streams can be reallocated without disruption to students or schools.
"I call it my proof of concept to show Congress that it works, that the money still gets to schools and to students where they need it," McMahon told Fox News Digital.
"Some of the programs in the Department of Education were being duplicated in other agencies or handled better elsewhere," McMahon added.
"So, let's be efficient. Let's make sure the money gets where it needs to go, let's measure that by student outcomes and let's hold teachers and administrators accountable for what they're doing."
Andrew Gillen, a higher education policy research fellow at the Cato Institute, told Fox News Digital that shifting major core duties such as student loans and formula grants marks a significant departure from past interagency agreements, which typically involved only limited administrative support.
The change reflects a broader conservative push to streamline the federal role in education, reduce overlapping programs and return more authority to states and local communities.
McMahon has previously argued, including during the government shutdown, that ED largely functions as a pass-through entity for federal dollars rather than a provider of essential day-to-day services.
"Congress appropriates the funds. The funds come through the Department of Education, and some of that funding still goes to other agencies to get to students and schools," McMahon told Fox News Digital.
"Primarily, the money was passed through the Department of Education to then get to the states and local authorities for education."
Earlier this year, ED announced it had vacated the Lyndon B. Johnson Department of Education building so the Department of Energy could move in by August, a move officials described as "a prudent step to save hundreds of millions of taxpayer dollars and further reduce the federal education bureaucracy."
The Trump administration is simultaneously working to shrink the departments footprint by devolving more power to the states, consistent with long-standing conservative priorities of local control and limited federal intervention.
The ED has launched a new process allowing states to seek greater flexibility in using federal education funds and to cut back on administrative red tape, with Iowa becoming the first state to take advantage of the opportunity.
The Department of Education sent states a letter in July 2025 encouraging them to apply for a waiver that would grant state officials more discretion over federal dollars while reducing compliance costs.
As McMahon continues to offload core functions to Labor, Treasury and other agencies, the experiment she calls her "proof of concept" is rapidly becoming a test case for whether Washington can roll back a Cabinet department and still keep money flowing to classrooms, all while advancing a more accountable, state-driven vision of American education.
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