Staff say the Education Department has not been torn down; it has simply grown less efficient.
Five Education Department employees spoke to NPR without being named, claiming they lack authorization to speak publicly about the moves and worry about professional consequences.
The changes over the last 18 months have cost an unknown amount of taxpayer dollars and made the agency’s work more complex and potentially inefficient, according to the staffers. They describe a sprawling shift that has scattered hundreds of employees across at least nine other agency buildings in Washington, including the special education and civil rights offices, which moved this month.
The Secretary’s Promise
Linda McMahon, the Education Secretary, has described the changes as part of an effort to simplify how the federal government operates. She has highlighted the objective of reducing bureaucratic requirements during her public remarks.
Efficiency is what the administration claims to be pursuing. What actually happens contradicts that claim.
Grants Moved Out Of The Department
Each year, the Education Department moves billions of dollars from the federal government to states and schools through its grant programs, even though it is the smallest cabinet-level agency. One of those programs, Title I, provides roughly $18.4 billion annually to schools serving a large share of students from low-income families.
The staff who handled those grants have been reassigned to the Labor Department, and that transfer has produced a series of problems in how the work gets done.
| Grant Type | Amount | Status |
|---|---|---|
| Title I | $18.4 billion per year | Next tranche sent via Education’s system |
| Career and technical education | Transferred last year | Initial payments delayed, later rounds on time |
| Other smaller, competitive grants | Already switched to Labor’s platforms |
Two Failed Attempts To Use Labor’s Systems
Labor’s systems have been put to work twice now for the distribution of Title I money and other major grants. Each time, state officials objected, pointing to worries over technical troubles and a dearth of trained personnel, which brought both efforts to an end.
The same complaints kept being raised after each failure. States said the systems were not ready, and that the staff who knew how to run them had been moved elsewhere.
The funds coming next under Title I, set to reach students on Oct. 1, will go through the Education Department’s system. That decision came after states raised concerns about using Labor’s payment system.
Several other, smaller competitive grants have already moved to Labor’s platforms. They too have encountered delays and uncertainty as states attempt to determine where to locate information about their funding.
Special Education Staff Moved To HHS
More than a hundred staff members who oversee special education services started reporting to an HHS building on Sept. 10. The change places those workers under the supervision of an entirely different agency.
A staffer at the Office for Special Education and Rehabilitative Services (OSERS) described the situation bluntly: “We spend a lot of time calming nerves, which is not what we’re paid to do.” The staffer spoke to NPR without being named.
Civil Rights Staff Moved To Justice
The workers responsible for student civil rights have been shifted over to the Justice Department, so the staff assigned to handle education-related civil rights issues now operate inside a law enforcement agency.
Another layer of complexity has been added to an already fragmented system. Now, states and schools must work with three separate agencies just to figure out how federal education funding operates.
Payments Sent Through Labor’s System
The department has processed over 7,200 payments totaling over $1.93 billion since October 1, 2025, through the Department of Labor’s payment system, according to Education Department press secretary Savannah Newhouse. She responded to questions about the initial delay in payments by writing in an email: “I’d hardly call successfully processing over 7,200 payments totaling over $1.93 billion since October 1, 2025, through the Department of Labor’s payment system a ‘cautionary tale’ on inefficiency.”
The answer given does not say anything about how well the system worked. Payments went through, but they came late.
What Colleges And States Are Saying
Temple University’s Bryce McKibben, who studies higher education policy, reports that colleges and states depending on federal grants for low-income student parents are having a rough time. He notes that finding reliable information has become difficult, that systems have shifted, and that guidance from the government has declined.
Not all funding streams have felt the delays equally. Last year, career and technical education grants moved entirely over to Labor’s systems, while several states reported getting their share of the money months late.
Earlier this summer, the next round of the same funding arrived on schedule. That shows the system can function when set correctly, even though the first payment brought serious trouble.
The Cost Of The Move
Staffers told NPR that the changes have cost an unknown amount of taxpayer dollars and have added layers to the agency’s work, possibly making it less efficient. No cost estimate for the restructuring has been released by the administration.
Beyond the dollars involved, there is also an administrative burden, plus the hours devoted to soothing concerns, along with the uncertainty felt by states and schools that must monitor funding split between three separate agencies.
The Evidence From The Ground
The stated aim of efficiency has not been reached. Instead, the evidence gathered on the ground shows that the changes have increased complexity and reduced efficiency. Delays, scattered staffing, and repeated failures of the Labor systems all confirm the same conclusion.
What has happened is not the destruction of the Education Department, but its reconfiguration into something that costs more and serves the public less well.
NPR’s sources are not complaining just to complain; they are explaining how a system that was once designed to work has stopped doing so. The calming of nerves they describe falls outside their assigned duties, and they argue it should not fall to them to manage.
Red tape has not been cut as promised by the administration. Instead, it has simply been redistributed among more offices.
Staff say the Education Department has grown less efficient rather than being dismantled.
Where the paper stands
The paper backs none of this: it is against both the Education Department’s scattering of its workforce into nine other agency buildings and the staff’s claim that this has cost taxpayers money and made the agency less efficient. The administration promised a simpler government and delivered a tangled mess instead.
This is the kind of administrative rearrangement the paper warns against. Moving grant staff to the Labor Department and scattering special education workers to HHS adds layers of bureaucracy without cutting them. The delays, the repeated failures of Labor’s systems, and the scrambling by states all point to one thing: the department has grown less efficient rather than being torn down. The staff who spoke to NPR describe a system that now requires states and schools to coordinate with three separate agencies to track federal funding. That is not simplification; it is fragmentation.
The paper wants the administration to stop scattering staff around and start answering the question everyone is asking: how much did these moves cost, and how badly did they break the system? The staff say the changes have cost an unknown amount of taxpayer dollars, and the administration has refused to release a cost estimate. Until those questions are answered, the paper will keep watching, and it will keep asking for the department to explain itself.
Source material: “The Education Dept. hasn't been dismantled. It's become more inefficient, staff say,” NPR.
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