President Donald Trump revealed that the Small Business Administration (SBA) and the Department of Health and Human Services (HHS) would take over certain programs from the Department of Education regarding student loans, special needs, and nutrition.
Trump’s announcement comes a day after he signed an executive order instructing Linda McMahon, the Secretary of the Department of Education “to the maximum extent appropriate and permitted by law” to “take all necessary steps to facilitate the closure” of the department and to “return authority over education to the States and local communities.”
“I’ve decided that the SBA — the Small Business Administration, headed by Kelly Loeffler…… will handle all of the student loan portfolio,” Trump said on Friday. “We have a portfolio that’s very large, lots of loans — tens of thousands of loans. Pretty complicated deal, and that’s coming out of the Department of Education immediately and it’s going to be headed up by Kelly Loeffler, SBA.”
“Also, Bobby Kennedy ….will be handling special needs and all of the nutrition programs, and everything else,” Trump added. “Rather complex, but that’s going to be headed by and handled by Health and Human Services. So, I think that will work out very well. Those two elements will be taken out of the Department of Education.”
In response to Trump’s executive order to begin dismantling the Department of Education, McMahon issued a statement clarifying that closing the Department of Education “does not mean cutting off funds from those who depend on them,” adding that students in kindergarten through 12th grade, special needs students and “college student borrows,” among others, would continue to be supported.
“We’re going to follow the law and eliminate the bureaucracy responsibly by working through Congress to ensure a lawful and orderly transition,” McMahon said.
As Breitbart News’s Katherine Hamilton previously reported, during an interview on Breitbart News Daily on Friday, McMahon clarified that Trump “is not looking to defund the services that go to the states.”
In response to a question from host Mike Slater about “money that goes to programs for students with disabilities and special needs,” McMahon explained that that “comes under” the Individual Disability Education Act,” which was “already in place” prior to the Department of Education being established.
“That comes under IDEA, which is the Individual Disability Education Act,” McMahon said. “Before the Department of Education was established in 1980, IDEA was already in place. It was what was then HEW (The Department of Health, Education, and Welfare), and Title I funding was already in place — it was long before there was the Department of Education.”
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