The U.S. Department of Education has taken new steps to dismantle itself and further the Trump administration’s goal of reducing federal education bureaucracy, although critics are concerned the changes will negatively impact students.

On Nov. 18, the education department announced six new agreements with four other federal agencies to take over some of the department’s programs and activities. In a news release, the Ed Department said distributing its duties to other agencies would streamline federal education activities, reduce administrative burdens and refocus programs to better serve students.

Under these new partnerships, the following offices will now be under the jurisdiction of new federal agencies:

Virtually all federal funding streams to K-12 schools are moving to the Department of Labor, including all Title programs and McKinney-Vento for homeless students, said reporter Mark Lieberman with Education Week, who came on ACSA’s Legislative Lunch Break program Nov. 19 to talk about the changes.

“The department has made it clear ... that these moves are not intended to disrupt or change funding levels for any of the programs,” Lieberman said, adding that the Trump administration has no authority to change federal school funding. “Funding changes are not on the agenda. However, there are some questions about management of these programs.”

Lieberman said it appears that staffers from the Education Department will move with their programs to the new agencies, but it’s unclear how many and when or how that move will happen.

“At the minimum, the abrupt nature of the announcement, the complexity of these moves from one agency to another ... that is going to create some questions for state education agencies about, just procedurally, how are they going to access the money,” he said.

Lieberman also confirmed three key programs that are not transferring from the Department of Education at this time: special education, IDEA and Civil Rights enforcement.

U.S. Secretary of Education Linda McMahon called the changes a bold action that would lead to the elimination of the department and the return of education to the states.

“Cutting through layers of red tape in Washington is one essential piece of our final mission,” McMahon said, in a news release. “As we partner with these agencies to improve federal programs, we will continue to gather best practices in each state through our 50-state tour, empower local leaders in K-12 education, restore excellence to higher education, and work with Congress to codify these reforms. Together, we will refocus education on students, families, and schools — ensuring federal taxpayer spending is supporting a world-class education system.”

State Superintendent of Public Instruction Tony Thurmond issued a statement calling the changes “unnecessary” and “disruptive” to students.

“It is clearly less efficient for state departments of education and local school districts to work with four different federal agencies instead of one,” Thurmond said. “Experience also tells us that any time you move expertise and responsibilities, you disrupt services. There is no way to avoid negative impacts on our children and our classrooms with a change of this magnitude.”

Thurmond iterated that the Trump administration does not have authority to reallocate responsibilities and such changes must be approved by Congress.