Support H.R. 10232 & S.5046 to Protect the Federal Department of Education

I am writing to urge you to support H.R. 10232 & S.5046, which seek to keep all special education, postsecondary, Native American, and elementary and secondary education activities within the U.S. Department of Education. Since May 2025, the Education Department has signed 14 interagency agreements with six other federal agencies to offload many K-12 and higher education responsibilities. The House bill was referred to the Education and Workforce Committee for consideration, and the Senate bill passed the Committee on Health, Education, Labor and Pensions in July. The committee also approved an amendment to S. 5046 that would require the Education Department to report on the cost of its interagency agreements. To implement one single interagency agreement with the U.S. Department of Labor, the Education Department has paid over a million dollars Moving core offices, physical headquarters, and functional responsibilities of the U.S. Department of Education to other federal agencies fractures institutional expertise, creates administrative chaos, and disrupts vulnerable student services: Moving special education oversight (such as the Individuals with Disabilities Education Act) to HHS threatens to medicalize a framework that is legally designed to be educational. General K-12 education and special education have been intentionally aligned for decades to promote student inclusion. Splitting these functions across different departments fractures this alignment. Rather than reducing red tape, scattering responsibilities across multiple departments with different reporting systems, administrative cultures, and missions creates a fragmented landscape. Smaller school districts and state agencies with low personnel capacity will struggle to navigate multiple federal bodies instead of one centralized department. Mass staffing reductions and rapid relocations force out seasoned education policy experts who understand complex federal student aid, civil rights enforcement, and grant distributions. Other federal departments taking over portfolios like student loans or civil rights are viewed as unequipped and understaffed to handle the unique scale of the ED's responsibilities, risking delays in financial aid and civil rights protections. For all of these reasons, I ask you to support H.R. 10232 & S.5046 in committee, in discussion on the floor, and when it comes up for a vote. Thank you.