On Friday, President Trump declared that the Education Department would stop overseeing the nation’s $1.6 trillion student loan portfolio and special education services, marking a significant change in an agency he has aimed to abolish.
According to Mr. Trump, student loans will now fall under the purview of the Small Business Administration, while special education services along with nutrition programs will be transferred to the Department of Health and Human Services.
During a press conference in the Oval Office, Mr. Trump stated that these changes would be implemented “immediately,” expressing his belief that the restructuring would “turn out very well.”
“You’re going to have a much better education for half the cost,” he emphasized.
Mr. Trump set the stage for this announcement on Thursday with an executive order focused on dissolving the Department of Education. While Congress must approve any closure of the department, Mr. Trump’s administration has cut the department’s workforce by over 50% and has eliminated $600 million in grants. Transferring its main responsibilities will further undermine the agency.
In his order, the president drew a comparison between the size of the federal student loan portfolio and that of Wells Fargo, the bank, highlighting that while Wells Fargo has over 200,000 employees, the Education Department’s Office of Federal Student Aid is staffed by only 1,500 individuals.
“The Department of Education is not a bank, and it must return banking functions to an entity capable of properly serving America’s students,” the order stated.
These changes would shuffle some of the largest programs previously managed by the Education Department into agencies that have had little interaction with educational institutions and are also experiencing staffing cuts.
The Small Business Administration, led by Kelly Loeffler, announced on Thursday that it would be reducing its workforce by 43% from its approximate 6,500 employees, and the Department of Health and Human Services, directed by Robert F. Kennedy Jr., has proposed buyouts to many of its roughly 80,000 staff members.
Mr. Kennedy has advocated for enhanced nutrition and the removal of ultra-processed foods from school lunches.
However, he has made several contentious remarks attributing environmental toxins and a flawed food system to the “epidemic” of chronic illnesses that have rendered America’s youth some of the unhealthiest in the developed world.
He has also promoted fringe theories regarding the influence of diet on disease prevention, such as for measles, while questioning the effectiveness and safety of established vaccines, claiming they are linked to autism.
