{"slug": "whats-left-of-the-education-department-after-trump-dismantling", "title": "What’s Left of the Education Department After Trump Dismantling", "summary": "US Secretary of Education Linda McMahon has nearly dismantled the Department of Education, laying off half its staff, cutting over $1 billion in contracts, and transferring most programs to other agencies, leaving only a shell of the department. The moves fulfill President Trump's campaign promise, though only Congress can officially eliminate the agency.", "body_md": "(Bloomberg) -- US Secretary of Education Linda McMahon has made major advances in what she's described as her \"final mission:\" the dissolution of her own agency.\n\nMost Read from Bloomberg\n\n-\n[Trump's U-Turn on Iran Sanctions Would Unravel Decades of Curbs](https://www.bloomberg.com/news/articles/2026-06-28/trump-s-u-turn-on-iran-sanctions-would-unravel-decades-of-curbs?utm_campaign=bn&utm_medium=distro&utm_source=yahooUS) -\n[US and Iran Agree to Halt Attacking Each Other Ahead of Talks](https://www.bloomberg.com/news/articles/2026-06-28/us-strikes-iran-again-as-tit-for-tat-attacks-test-ceasefire?utm_campaign=bn&utm_medium=distro&utm_source=yahooUS) -\n[Oil Trades Near Four-Month Low as US and Iran Halt Fresh Attacks](https://www.bloomberg.com/news/articles/2026-06-28/latest-oil-market-news-and-analysis-for-june-29?utm_campaign=bn&utm_medium=distro&utm_source=yahooUS) -\n[Prabowo Risks Prompt Global Banks to Pull Cash Out of Indonesia](https://www.bloomberg.com/news/articles/2026-06-28/citi-hsbc-stanchart-send-more-indonesia-profits-home-as-prabowo-demands-rise?utm_campaign=bn&utm_medium=distro&utm_source=yahooUS)\n\nOnly Congress can officially eliminate the Department of Education, a key campaign promise of President Donald Trump. But McMahon has been methodically working within her powers to hollow out the department, laying off nearly half of its employees, slashing more than a billion dollars in contracts, and shedding most programs and offices to other federal agencies.\n\nThis month the Trump administration moved two of the agency's largest divisions, the Office for Civil Rights and the Office of Special Education and Rehabilitative Services, to the Departments of Justice and Health and Human Services, respectively.\n\nThose had been the last core offices not subject to inter-agency agreements, formal partnerships in which departments can share responsibilities with others — or, in this case, offload them. McMahon has used that strategy to redistribute hundreds of employees and billions of dollars across the federal government.\n\nOnly a husk of the Education Department remains, and the vast majority of the $200 billion it distributed in federal funds last year will now flow through different agencies.\n\nLast year officials moved the offices overseeing K-12 schools, higher education and workforce training to the Department of Labor. In March they began transferring the $1.7 trillion student loan portfolio to the Treasury, along with the management of federal financial aid programs.\n\nA new report filed by the department's Office of Inspector General details the extent of the agency's winnowing: 135 divisions were left without a single employee after sweeping layoffs; fewer than 20 had more than five staffers left.\n\nIn August, the greatly diminished staff is set to begin moving to a new building, a nondescript office with 300,000 fewer square feet of space, located in the former workspace of the US Agency for International Development.\n\nThe department's breakdown represents a shift in federal education policy that may be difficult to undo, whether or not Congress acts to formally dissolve it. The agency was founded in 1979 to consolidate a range of federal policy initiatives like school integration, civil rights enforcement, financial aid for low-income families and support for special needs students. Trump's dismantling means those efforts will once again be scattered across the government.", "url": "https://wpnews.pro/news/whats-left-of-the-education-department-after-trump-dismantling", "canonical_source": "https://ca.finance.yahoo.com/news/left-education-department-trump-dismantling-120015033.html", "published_at": "2026-06-29 12:00:15+00:00", "updated_at": "2026-06-29 13:22:35.105671+00:00", "lang": "en", "topics": ["ai-policy"], "entities": ["Linda McMahon", "Department of Education", "Donald Trump", "Department of Justice", "Department of Health and Human Services", "Department of Labor", "Treasury", "Office of Inspector General"], "alternates": {"html": "https://wpnews.pro/news/whats-left-of-the-education-department-after-trump-dismantling", "markdown": "https://wpnews.pro/news/whats-left-of-the-education-department-after-trump-dismantling.md", "text": "https://wpnews.pro/news/whats-left-of-the-education-department-after-trump-dismantling.txt", "jsonld": "https://wpnews.pro/news/whats-left-of-the-education-department-after-trump-dismantling.jsonld"}}