President Trump announced on Friday that the Department of Education would no longer administer the student loan portfolio of $ 1.6 billion from the Nation or supervise the «special needs» programs in a large shake of an agency that has tried to eliminate.
Student loans will move under the administration of small businesses, while special education services, together with nutrition programs, will move under the Department of Health and Human Services, Trump said.
Trump told reporters gathered in the Oval office that the movements would be «immediately», and added that he believed that the restructuring, that critics quickly promised to challenge in court, «would work very well.»
«They will be repaired much better than in the past. It has been a disaster,» he said about loans. He added: «You will have a great education, much better than it is now, in the middle of the cost.»
Trump laid the foundations for his announcement on Thursday, with a Executive order aimed at closing the Department of Education. The department cannot be closed without the approval of Congress, which created it. But since Trump assumed the position, his administration cut the workforce of the department in more than half and eliminated $ 600 million in subsidies.
Reassigning such primary functions would further assign the agency, although experts in education and union officials interrogated Mr. Trump’s authority to do so unilaterally, particularly in the case of student loans. Many suggested that the result would not be a better service, just more confusion for borrowers.
Karoline Leavitt, the White House Press Secretary, insisted on Thursday that the main programs such as student loans would still run out of the education department, although much thinner. He pressed Friday to clarify what functions they would move and what legal authority had to transfer them, the Congress invoked.
«President Trump is doing everything within his executive authority to dismantle the Department of Education and return education to the United States while safeguarding the critical functions for students and families such as student loans, special needs programs and nutrition programs,» he said. «The president has always said that Congress has a role to play in this effort, and we hope they help the president to deliver.»
The high -ranking Republicans in Congress have already committed to presenting legislation to support Trump’s efforts to eliminate the education department.
Beth Maglione, an interim president and executive director of the National Association of Student Financial Aid Administrators, said «it was not clear» if Trump could move away the help programs of the department. She suggested that a transition, even an authorized by Congress, would require careful planning.
«The administration would first need to articulate a definitive strategy that describes how the work of managing student aid programs would be assigned within the SBA, determining the necessary staff and resources and building the necessary infrastructure to facilitate the transition from these programs to another federal agency,» he said. «In the absence of any comprehensive plan, there is a serious concern: how will this restructuring be executed without interruptions for students and institutions?»
In the Executive Order, the President compared the size of the Federal Student Loan portfolio with that of Wells Fargo, the Bank, noting that Wells Fargo had more than 200,000 employees, while only 1,500 people worked at the Federal Federal Assistance Office of the Department of Education.
«The Department of Education is not a bank, and must return bank functions to an entity equipped to serve the students of the United States,» the order said.
On Thursday, Trump promised that legally mandatory funds for students attending high poverty schools and that depend on federal pell subsidies, as well as «resources for children with special disabilities and special needs», they would be preserved even when the department was destroyed according to their plans.
He indicated that this was important for Linda McMahon, the Secretary of Education of Mr. Trump, who served as SBA administrator during his first mandate.
The restructuring that Mr. Trump announced on Friday would transfer some of the largest programs managed by the Department of Education to agencies that have had a minimal participation with schools and are going through personnel reductions.
The SBA, headed by Kelly Loeffler, announced Thursday that I would Cut 43 percent Of its approximately 6,500 workers, while the HHS, led by Robert F. Kennedy Jr., He has offered purchases to most of its approximately 80,000 employees.
The representatives of the SBA did not immediately respond to a request for comments. In A publication on social networksMrs. Loeffler said: «The SBA is ready to take the initiative to restore responsibility and integrity to the US student loan portfolio.»
The acquisition of student loans would greatly expand the size of the portfolio that the SBA administers every year. In fiscal year 2024, the SBA reported a portfolio of almost $ 459 billion in pending loans. That is less than a third of what borrowers owe collectively in federal loans for students.
The Federal Student Loan Program has been plagued by problems, including a failed launch of a new application form that delayed its availability during the last two years.
Aaron Ament, a former official of the Department of Education who is now the president of the National Student Legal Defense Network, said that although the programs could benefit from the support of the Department of the Treasury or the SBA, to remove them from the Department of Education could lead to even more chaos for US students, schools and taxpayers.
«Obviously, there are decades of thinking that he has dedicated himself to why the supervision of these programs is in the agency,» said Ament.
He also doubted that Trump could transfer the programs himself, except for an explicit act of Congress.
«If you are trying to do this through some kind of executive action, we will challenge you, and you would expect it to be blocked quickly,» Ament said.
The student loan program was plunged into legal battles by much of the mandate of President Joseph R. Biden Jr. after his administration tried to forgive billions in debts.
«The previous administration had the experience of doing things that challenged and pushed the legal limits of their authority around student loans,» said Matthew M. Chingo, vice president of the Urban Institute who has written extensively on student loans. «That led to many judicial battles and, ultimately, uncertainty for borrowing students. The current administration can have a similar experience.»
Randi Weingarten, president of the American Federation of Masters, who is demanding the Department of Education for closing the payment plans of income based on the income, also expressed doubts that the administration could make the changes.
«First, a president does not have the authority to change the law, to do this, only Congress,» he wrote in A publication on social networks. «And secondly, why do they move a good idea? Student loans are not a small business and RFK JR knows nothing about the idea,» referring to the Law of Education of Individuals with Disabilities, a Bedrock Special Education Law.
In a publication on social networks, Mr. Kennedy wrote that His agency was «fully prepared to assume the responsibility of supporting people with special needs and supervising nutrition programs», which were administered by the Department of Education, and «would do the attention of our most vulnerable citizens our highest national priority.»
Mrs. McMahon, who has provided full support for Trump’s plan to eliminate the department and her work, also fought in An interview earlier this month To explain the idea of acronym.
«I am not sure to be able to tell you exactly what it represents, except that they are the programs for disabled and needs,» he told Fox News.
The defenders of the students with disabilities expressed alarm for the planned changes of Mr. Trump.
«Eliminating the education department achieves nothing more than chaos and confusion,» said Denise S. Marshall, executive director of the lawyers and lawyers of parents, in a written statement, pointing out that millions benefited from the unique internal experience of the Department of Education. «We would not send our children to doctors to be educated, and we will not accept sending functions to HHS»
When Trump promised to transfer «special needs and all nutrition programs and everything else» to HHS, he did not detail what they included the «special needs.» The Department of Education delivers billions annually to the States to pay special education services, and has a designated Special Education Office.
The Department of Education did not respond to a request for comments.
Nor is it entirely clear what is the scope of the «nutrition» programs that would inherit HHS. Mr. Kennedy, his secretary, has campaigned to improve nutrition and eliminate ultra -process foods from school lunches.
However, school lunches are currently under the reach of the Department of Agriculture, which recently ended a program that provided minimally processed foods from local producers directly to schools.
Mr. Kennedy has made a series of polarizing statements that blame environmental toxins and a food system broken by the «epidemic» of the chronic disease that has left the children in the United States among the most sick in the developed world.
He has also defended marginal theories about the role that diet can play to prevent diseases such as measles, while questioning the effectiveness and safety of proven vaccines.
