The Trump administration announced a plan to dismantle and reallocate major Education Department functions to other agencies, prompting swift criticism from state education chiefs. Officials in Washington, California and Maryland said the move will multiply bureaucracy, create coordination challenges and offer little clarity on who will oversee K–12 compliance and grants. Education Secretary Linda McMahon defended the plan as a path to greater state flexibility and uninterrupted funding; governors and superintendents say they were not consulted. The shift is already forcing states to model new administrative workflows and could reshape federal K–12 and higher-education compliance interactions.