Trump administration escalates effort to dissolve Education Dept.

Key programs move to other agencies. Vital services may be disrupted, critics say.

- BY HOWARD BLUME AND COLLIN BINKLEY

SALWAN GEORGES Washington Post STATES provide about 90% of their own funds for education, but federal involvement is crucial, advocates say.

The Trump administration on Tuesday accelerated the dismantling of the U.S. Department of Education with a plan to transfer key, legally required functions to other agencies, including oversight of its $18-billion, core antipoverty program, Title 1.

Critics said the move was politicized and counterproductive and fear future program cuts. California Supt. of Public Instruction Tony Thurmond said vital services to the state and nation's most vulnerable students were likely to be disrupted.

The steps move toward fulfilling a Trump campaign promise to eliminate the department, which some conservatives have long derided as wasteful, ineffective and unnecessary.

"The Trump Administration is taking bold action to break up the federal education bureaucracy and return education to the states," U.S. Secretary of Education Linda McMahon said in a statement. "Cutting through layers of red tape in Washington is one essential piece of our final mission."

President Trump called for the department's elimination in a March executive order. Both he and McMahon have spoken of a broad goal of sparking innovation through local control.

Even before this effort, states provided about 90% of their own funding for education, but federal investment is still crucial, advocates say. In particular, the federal role has focused on ensuring services are provided for overlooked students and students with higher needs, such as those facing discrimination and poverty, and students with disabilities.