Education Dept. Plan to Send CTE Programs to Labor Stokes Concern
Sara Weissman
June 25, 2025
While paused for now, the Education Department has plans to let the Department of Labor take over funding for career and technical education programs. CTE advocates fear the shift.
Proponents of career and technical education programs and Democratic lawmakers are wringing their hands over the Department of Education’s plans to offload the funding and administration of CTE programs to the Department of Labor.
They worry the plan, if enacted, would be a nail in the coffin of the Education Department, sow confusion and diminish the quality of these secondary and postsecondary career-prep programs.
News of an interagency agreement emerged earlier this month when the government filed a status report in court to show its compliance with an injunction preventing the administration from dismantling the Education Department. The agreement, blocked by that order, would move the administration of CTE program funding, under the Carl D. Perkins Career and Technical Education Act and the Adult Education and Family Literacy Act, to the Department of Labor. Department officials quietly signed the agreement May 21.
