Inside the dismantling of the Education Department
The Excerpt
USA TODAY
4.1 • 1.2K Ratings
🗓️ 2 December 2025
⏱️ 14 minutes
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Summary
The Trump administration has begun carving up the Education Department, signing six new agreements that shift major K-12 and higher ed programs to other federal agencies. USA TODAY Congress reporter Zach Schermele explains why these moves are happening now, how they build on a Supreme Court decision that allowed an earlier transfer to the Labor Department and what’s at stake for school districts that rely on Title I funding and federal oversight. He also breaks down concerns around special education, the future of student loan services, and whether these changes could widen disparities the department was created to fix.
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Transcript
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| 0:00.0 | President Donald Trump's quest to dismantle the Department of Education went into high gear late last month with six interagency agreements that redistributed longstanding functional areas of the department. |
| 0:15.7 | Will Congress finally cave in and let Trump abolish the ED? |
| 0:22.6 | Hello and welcome to USA Today's The Excert. I'm Dana Taylor. Today is Tuesday, December 2nd, 2025. |
| 0:29.5 | Here to help me dig into all of the changes at the Education Department. Now joined by USA Today Congress reporter, Zach Shermaley. |
| 0:37.1 | Thanks so much for coming back, Zach. |
| 0:38.8 | Thanks, Dana. |
| 0:39.8 | While only Congress can completely acts of federal agency, |
| 0:44.0 | the Supreme Court has allowed the White House to move forward for now, |
| 0:47.8 | with Mass Education Department layoffs. |
| 0:50.3 | Walk me through the latest changes. |
| 0:53.0 | This is arguably one of the most significant steps that the Education Department |
| 0:59.7 | under the Second Trump administration has taken to try and fulfill that promise of the |
| 1:06.0 | presidents to completely eliminate or dismantle the agency. |
| 1:11.1 | Now, the president has encountered a not insignificant number of roadblocks |
| 1:16.3 | and actually trying to fulfill that vow, |
| 1:21.2 | namely some of his own signature legislation. |
| 1:23.9 | The one big, beautiful bill act, |
| 1:26.3 | put a lot of new responsibilities into the purview of the Department of Education. |
| 1:32.7 | There also isn't really the votes in Congress at this particular moment in time to move forward with completely abolishing the agency. |
| 1:40.6 | So, Education Secretary Linda McMahon is doing what she can do. And the Supreme Court earlier |
| 1:46.9 | this year allowed the agency to continue with an interagency agreement is what it's called, or an IAA, |
| 1:55.6 | with the Department of Labor to allow that agency to oversee and to start to administer some |
... |
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