The Trump administration has issued a proposal to combine the U.S. Department of Education and the U.S. Department of Labor into a single Cabinet department, to be named the U.S. Department of Education and the Workforce.
The plan would merge the existing education and labor programs into one department with four sub-agencies: K-12 education; enforcement; research, evaluation and administration; and workforce and higher education administration.
The proposal, which is part of a larger plan to reorganize several parts of the federal government, would require Congressional approval. The U.S. Department of Education was established in 1979 by President Jimmy Carter, and became operational in 1980. It was created after the Department of Health, Education and Welfare was divided into the education department and the Department of Health and Human Services.