How the 2025 federal restructuring reshapes STEM pathways, partnerships, and community opportunity.
On November 18, 2025, the U.S. Department of Education announced a sweeping restructuring that will transfer daily administration of more than $20 billion in federal education programs to other agencies, most notably the Department of Labor. What might look like a bureaucratic reshuffling is, in reality, one of the most significant shifts in federal education oversight in decades.
For the communities and partners that make up our nation’s STEM Ecosystems, this is not abstract policy news from Washington. It reshapes the landscape you navigate every day — the funding that supports your work, the systems you coordinate, and the pathways young people rely on to access opportunity.
What’s Actually Changing: A Closer Look at the Federal Restructuring
The restructuring announced in November does not eliminate federal education programs, nor does it remove the U.S. Department of Education (ED) from its role as the nation’s policy-setter. But it does fundamentally change who will run the day-to-day operations of programs that shape STEM pathways across the country.
Under six new Interagency Agreements (IAAs), ED retains statutory authority, while partner agencies assume responsibility for grant competitions, technical assistance, payment processing, monitoring, data reporting, and operational integration. These roles are described directly in the official fact sheets released with each partnership agreement.
What this means for communities is simple: the agencies interpreting and administering these programs will no longer be ED. And the philosophies, systems, and capacities of these new agencies will shape how programs actually function on the ground.
The Department of Labor: The Largest Operational Shift
The most substantial transfer is to the U.S. Department of Labor (DOL), which will now oversee the operational administration of many of the nation’s most influential K–12 and postsecondary education programs under two major IAAs: 1) the ED–DOL Elementary and Secondary Education Partnership, and 2) the ED–DOL Postsecondary Education Partnership.
These fact sheets confirm that DOL will inherit operational responsibility for:
- Title I, Part A (Improving Basic Programs)
- Title II, Part A (Supporting Effective Instruction)
- Title IV, Part A (Student Support & Academic Enrichment)
- Title IV, Part B – 21st Century Community Learning Centers Impact Aid
- Charter Schools Program
- Perkins V Career & Technical Education
- WIOA Title II Adult Education & Family Literacy
- TRIO Programs (Upward Bound, Talent Search, Student Support Services, McNair, EOC)
- GEAR UP (Gaining Early Awareness & Readiness for Undergraduate Programs)
- CAMP & HEP (College Assistance Migrant Program and High School Equivalency Program)
According to the fact sheets, DOL will now conduct grant competitions, review applications, manage payments, oversee monitoring, and integrate these programs into existing DOL workforce and training systems. This is the deepest shift in federal education administration in decades.
The Department of the Interior: Tribal and Indigenous Education
Under the ED–DOI Indian Education Partnership, programs serving Native students will be administered by the Department of the Interior (DOI) and the Bureau of Indian Education (BIE). These include K–12 and postsecondary programs focused on:
- Native American and Alaska Native education
- Tribal colleges and universities
- Culturally responsive curriculum
- Native language programs
The fact sheet outlines DOI’s new responsibilities for competition management, technical assistance, and integration with tribal governance systems. For STEM Ecosystems serving Native communities, this means building new federal relationships and navigating a different federal operational culture.
The Department of Health and Human Services: Student-Parent Supports and Medical Accreditation
Two IAAs were established with HHS:
- CCAMPIS (Child Care Access Means Parents in School) — supporting college students with dependent children
- Foreign Medical Accreditation — oversight of accreditation determinations for foreign medical schools
While these programs affect a narrower portion of STEM pathways, they influence higher education access and global medical workforce alignment. HHS will now administer grant competitions, monitoring, and integration into its broader childcare and healthcare regulatory structures.
The Department of State: International and Foreign Language Education
The ED–State International Education and Foreign Language Studies Partnership places Fulbright-Hays and related international education programs under the State Department’s operational leadership.
This affects global education exchange, foreign language studies, and international research collaborations relevant to higher education institutions in STEM Ecosystems.
Why This Matters for STEM Learning Ecosystems
The administrative changes created by the federal interagency agreements represent a significant departure from previous education governance structures. While the Department of Education retains statutory authority, the transfer of operational responsibility to workforce, interior, health, and foreign affairs agencies fundamentally alters how communities will experience federal education programs.
For STEM Ecosystems — cross-sector networks that rely on coherence between K–12, out-of-school time, higher education, industry, and workforce partners — these shifts have direct implications for coordination, access, and long-term pathway development.
1. A Shift in the Center of Gravity
For the first time, many of the federal programs that fuel STEM pathways — 21st CCLC, Title I and II, Perkins CTE, WIOA, TRIO, GEAR UP — will be operationally run by workforce agencies, not education agencies. The programs don’t disappear, but their administrative home — and therefore their interpretive lens — fundamentally changes.
This shift creates both momentum and vulnerability:
- It may meaningfully strengthen the alignment between education and labor markets.
- It may also narrow STEM learning to job training, sidelining exploration, creativity, and identity formation — the developmental work ecosystems know must happen early.
How communities experience this transition will depend heavily on leadership at the ecosystem level.
2. Out-of-School STEM at a Critical Juncture
Out-of-school STEM — robotics, engineering design, coding, inquiry-based science — has been one of the strongest engines of STEM engagement. Much of that work depends on 21st CCLC funding, historically rooted in enrichment and youth development.
Under the Department of Labor administration, these programs will be evaluated through systems built for workforce outcomes: credentials, job readiness, apprenticeships, employment. Those priorities matter, but they don’t reflect the full purpose of OST STEM. Early interest, persistence, confidence, and belonging are not workforce metrics — yet they drive workforce readiness downstream.
Ecosystems will need to ensure that compliance with new expectations does not come at the expense of exploration-driven STEM learning.
3. College Access Pathways Under Strain
Programs like TRIO and GEAR UP link middle school preparation to college enrollment and completion, especially for first-generation, low-income, rural, and underrepresented students. These programs now face two pressures: a shift into a workforce agency and potential federal funding cuts. If these pathways weaken…
- fewer students will persist into STEM majors
- K–12/higher ed/industry collaborations will fracture
- community colleges — key ecosystem partners — will absorb greater pressure
Ecosystems will need to maintain continuity across these transitions, even if federal support becomes less stable.
4. A More Complex Partnership Landscape — and a Larger Leadership Role
The restructuring expands the number of systems ecosystems must coordinate:
- ED policy guidance
- DOL operational and workforce systems
- State workforce boards
- American Job Centers
- Higher education institutions
- Local education agencies
- OST providers
- Industry and employer partners
- Rural and tribal organizations
- Philanthropy
Ecosystems have always existed to connect what does not naturally connect. This moment amplifies that purpose. STEM Learning Ecosystems are uniquely designed for such times.
Ecosystems will feel these changes immediately — in afterschool STEM programs adjusting to workforce accountability structures; in higher-education partners navigating multi-agency requirements; in local schools working to understand new federal pathways; in families trying to make sense of evolving college-access supports; and in employers eager for talent but uncertain about the continuity of pipelines.
The restructuring places communities at a crossroads — but it also places STEM Ecosystem leaders in a position of heightened relevance and influence. Ecosystems excel in the very competencies this transition now requires:
- Cross-sector navigation when federal structures fragment
- Alignment of education and workforce priorities when agencies reorganize
- Communication and convening across partners who rarely share the same room
- Safeguarding access when systems shift toward efficiency over opportunity
- Holding a PreK–career vision when federal programs focus on discrete segments
- Translating policy into practice for communities who live the impact daily
At a time when agencies are redefining their roles and communities are being asked to adjust, STEM Ecosystems offer something irreplaceable: coherence, stability, and a commitment to building high quality opportunities in STEM from early childhood through adulthood.
This federal restructuring will reshape the landscape — but Ecosystems may help shape how communities experience it.
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