Trump administration proposes merging departments of Labor, Education

President Donald Trump’s administration released plans for a comprehensive governmentwide reorganization that includes merging the departments of Labor and Education.The reform plan also proposed consolidating parts of the Department of the Interior and the Department of Agriculture into the Environmental Protection Agency, and merging the National Marine Fisheries Service with the Fish and Wildlife Service, to improve federal wildlife and fisheries policies.

The goal of the merge, which would create the Department of Education and the Workforce, is to prepare Americans for success in a “globally competitive world through family-sustaining careers.”

“(There are) undeniable connections between labor and education,” said Goldman School of Public Policy lecturer Steven Weissman. “The devil is in the details.”

Weissman noted that the government’s desired efficiency would come from cutting programs and funding within the combined department.

Merging departments would increase the government’s efficiency, according to Berkeley College Republicans President Matt Ronnau, specifically because downsizing the federal government would give state and local governments more power to organize labor and education laws as they see fit.

“I think Cal should be happy with the proposal, as the streamlining will mean that any needs that they have will be addressed and taken care of more quickly,” Ronnau said in a Facebook message. “Hopefully this shift will revert more power back to the States.”

While Ronnau pointed out that American Federation of Teachers President Randi Weingarten said combining the two departments would make sense, an American Federation of Teachers press release said Weingarten and the federation strongly oppose the merge and have advised Congress to reject it.

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