As President Donald Trump moves to downsize and eventually dismantle the Department of Education, an expert in contact with White House stakeholders assured that the department’s programs, including funding, student loans and civil rights protections, will continue.
“They want to make sure, especially with things like Title I schools for disadvantaged students, and high poverty areas to civil rights protections for girls in sports, to race equality in education through Title Six will continue to be enforced through the federal Department of Education until and unless those burdens, those responsibilities, can be shifted to other departments, and that would take place by congressional action,” Sarah Parshall Perry, top legal expert at Heritage Foundation, told Fox News Digital in an interview.
Trump signed a long-anticipated executive order Thursday to do away with the Education Department and directed Education Secretary Linda McMahon to initiate the shutdown process and transfer key functions, such as Pell Grants and Title I funding, to other federal agencies.
Perry said Thursday’s order “is going to be the first step in a very long, consistent, labor-intensive process to be able to continue the work of downsizing.”
“Which is exactly what we’ve seen the Department of Education already do, but also specifically continue enforcing civil rights and financial aid responsibility through the federal government until those particular duties are passed to other agencies,” she said.
For instance, Perry said, civil rights enforcement would shift to the Department of Justice, while student loan processes would be handled by the Department of the Treasury.
