President Trump announced Friday that the Education Department would no longer manage the nation’s $1.6 trillion student loan portfolio or supervise “special needs” programs in a major shake-up of an agency he has sought to eliminate.
Student loans will move under the Small Business Administration, while special education services, along with nutrition programs, will move under the Department of Health and Human Services, Mr. Trump said.
Mr. Trump told reporters gathered in the Oval Office that the moves would take place “immediately,” adding that he believed the restructuring — which critics swiftly vowed to challenge in court — would “work out very well.”
“They’ll be serviced much better than it has in the past. It’s been a mess,” he said of the loans. He added, “You’re going to have great education, much better than it is now, at half the cost.”
Mr. Trump laid the groundwork for his announcement on Thursday, with an executive order aimed at closing the Education Department. The department cannot be closed without the approval of Congress, which created it. But since Mr. Trump took office, his administration has slashed the department’s work force by more than half and eliminated $600 million in grants.
Reassigning such primary functions would further hollow out the agency, though education experts and union officials questioned Mr. Trump’s authority to do so unilaterally, particularly in the case of student loans. Many suggested that the result would not be better service — only more confusion for borrowers.