Legislation introduced by U.S. Sen. Susan Collins (R) to prevent the Department of Education from transferring several major offices to other federal agencies advanced Thursday with bipartisan support.
The bill cleared the Senate Health, Education, Labor and Pensions Committee by a 13-9 vote and will now move forward for further consideration.
Collins, a Maine Republican, introduced the legislation alongside Sens. Tim Kaine, D-Va., and Lisa Murkowski, R-Alaska.
The measure would prohibit the Department of Education from transferring four offices to other federal agencies: the Office of Special Education and Rehabilitative Services, the Office of Postsecondary Education, the Office of Elementary and Secondary Education, and the Office of Indian Education.
Supporters of the legislation argue that other federal departments do not have the personnel, institutional knowledge or specialized expertise necessary to properly administer the programs.
“This bill is straightforward. It keeps the administration of important landmark education programs at the Department of Education where Congress specifically put them and where they belong,” Collins said during the committee markup.
Collins specifically criticized an agreement that would shift administration of the federal office overseeing the Individuals with Disabilities Education Act, commonly known as IDEA, to the Department of Health and Human Services.
“These transfers are misaligned with their program purposes,” Collins said. “That change fundamentally misunderstands the history and intent of the Special Education program, which was created in 1975 to ensure that children with disabilities receive a free and appropriate public education.”
The Office of Special Education and Rehabilitative Services currently helps oversee educational services for more than 8 million children with disabilities, according to Collins.
“It’s primarily focused on the student’s education needs, not on their health care needs,” she said. “Prior to IDEA, far too many children with disabilities did not receive an education.”
Kaine said the bill would help ensure that critical federal education programs remain in agencies equipped to administer them.
“America’s students and economy depend on the quality of our schools,” Kaine said. “That’s why I worked on a bipartisan solution to bar the Department of Education from transferring critical offices and programs, including those that students with disabilities rely on — to other federal agencies that lack the staff and expertise needed to carry out their work.”
The legislation has been endorsed by the Bipartisan Policy Center, the National Education Association and the American Federation of Teachers.
Margaret Spellings, president and CEO of the Bipartisan Policy Center and a former education secretary under President George W. Bush, said Congress should debate the future of the federal government’s role in education rather than allowing programs to be moved between agencies through administrative agreements.
“We are long overdue for a serious national conversation about updating the federal role in education for the 21st century,” Spellings said. “That is a debate worth having. But dismantling the Department of Education piece by piece and shuffling programs between agencies is not reform.”
The nation’s two largest teachers’ unions also backed the legislation while sharply criticizing the Trump administration’s effort to reduce the Department of Education’s size and transfer some of its responsibilities.
The National Education Association described the administration’s effort as an “illegal push to dismantle” the department, arguing that moving programs would create additional bureaucracy and make it more difficult for schools and families to access federal services.
American Federation of Teachers President Randi Weingarten similarly claimed the transfers had created overlapping responsibilities, duplicated costs and unclear lines of accountability.
The Collins-Kaine-Murkowski legislation would not prevent Congress from restructuring federal education programs through the legislative process. It would, however, block the Department of Education from unilaterally transferring the four offices and their responsibilities to other federal agencies.
