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The White House today proposed to merge the Department of Education (ED) and the Department of Labor (DOL). The proposal is a product of the Trump administration’s promise to trim federal bloat, consolidate duplicative programs, and better focus federal efforts to support retraining and employment.
Republican calls to eliminate the Department of Education have a long history, but not a successful one. Back in 1980, President Carter created the Department of Education to honor a campaign pledge to the National Education Association. The new federal Department of Education was carved out of the old Department of Health, Education, and Welfare — which became the Department of Health and Human Services (HHS). From 1980 to 1996, the GOP platform called for eliminating the new agency, decrying it as unnecessary, unconstitutional, and an invitation to federal overreach. Since 2000, when George W. Bush made education reform a centerpiece of his presidential campaign, the Republican stance on the department has been more mixed.
The administration’s proposal is sensible enough. There is plenty that can be usefully cut at the departments in question and there are real benefits from streamlining programs. But big savings require making major cuts to programs — and the administration hasn’t had any success on that count. Just a few months ago, in fact, it agreed to bust the longstanding budget caps and sign off on a dramatic expansion of federal spending. And, even among the shrinking ranks of fiscal hawks, there’s not much appetite for trimming big-dollar education programs like Title I and Pell Grants. If the administration simply combines the departments without making major program cuts, all the activity will add up to little more than rearranging the patio furniture.
In any event, the proposal requires congressional action and it takes a lot of magical thinking to see a path to 60 votes in the Senate — whether before or after November. That means this is most interesting as a symbolic statement, on a couple of fronts. For one thing, the fact that the proposal is to merge ED with DOL rather than reabsorb it into HHS is a telling commentary on the educational landscape in 2018. For another, this dramatic-sounding proposal will overshadow some of the actual downsizing the administration has achieved — as with its success trimming ED staffing by 13 percent since Secretary Betsy DeVos took office in early 2017. In other words, this risks being another case of ambitious-sounding but hollow commotion distracting attention from a real, if modest, achievement.
The proposal requires congressional action and it takes a lot of magical thinking to see a path to 60 votes in the Senate, so its likeliest effect will be to overshadow some of the actual downsizing the administration has achieved.
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