WASHINGTON —

The U.S. Department of Education announced new steps Tuesday in President Donald Trump’s push to downsize the federal agency and "return education to the states."

Trump signed an executive order in March that called for eliminating the Education Department, but his administration has previously acknowledged that dissolving it entirely would require an act of Congress , which created the agency in 1979.

For now, the department is moving forward with plans to shift key services to other parts of the federal government through six new interagency agreements. The Trump administration argues these agreements will improve program management and "streamline the bureaucracy."

The announcement is likely to face pushback. Critics have argued that the Trump administration is

See Full Page