The Legal Defense Fund (LDF) strongly condemns the U.S. Department of Education’s (ED) announcement that it has entered into six new interagency agreements (IAAs) to transfer significant departmental responsibilities to other federal agencies. This most recent action by the Trump Administration is an alarming escalation in its ongoing efforts to dismantle ED.
Under these IAAs, ED will move several of its K–12 and higher education grant programs to outside agencies,including TRIO, the Magnet Schools Assistance Program, Title I funds, and Historically Black Colleges and Universities (HBCU) grants, despite ED’s decades-long institutional expertise and its historic role in advancing equal educational opportunity. Secretary McMahon’s remarks make clear that this restructuring is intended as a “test run” for fully abolishing the Department of Education.
These changes will harm Black students and communities by disrupting and slowing the flow of essential federal dollars to schools and by undermining a federal agency that has played a crucial role in protecting the civil and educational rights of students nationwide.
“Secretary McMahon’s recent actions do not strengthen educational opportunities for students. Instead, they’re a continuation of a baseless assault against the Department of Education that recklessly endangers the education and civil rights of millions of students across the country,” said Demetria L. McCain, Director of Policy at LDF. “Black students and other students from underserved and vulnerable communities will especially bear the brunt of the Department of Education’s offloading of its core responsibilities to agencies with no comparable expertise. LDF will continue to oppose every effort to weaken the agency responsible for making equal educational opportunity more than just an aspiration.”
“Yesterday’s announcement is another deliberate step toward hollowing out a federal agency that was created to ensure equal access to education for students across the country,” said Ashley Harrington, Senior Policy Counsel at LDF. “Many vital programs that directly impact Black students, low-income students, and other students of color risk mass delays and failures. Transferring critical responsibilities to agencies without the necessary expertise and resources will only create more barriers for the very communities these programs are meant to support. These agreements will not help students, families, or communities.”
Read more about the Trump Administration’s attack on the U.S. Department of Education.
###
Founded in 1940, the Legal Defense Fund (LDF) is the nation’s first civil rights law organization. LDF’s Thurgood Marshall Institute is a multi-disciplinary and collaborative hub within LDF that launches targeted campaigns and undertakes innovative research to shape the civil rights narrative. In media attributions, please refer to us as the Legal Defense Fund or LDF. Please note that LDF has been completely separate from the National Association for the Advancement of Colored People (NAACP) since 1957—although LDF was originally founded by the NAACP and shares its commitment to equal rights.
