President Donald Trump’s plan to merge two federal departments "would save tax dollars by streamlining the ineffective system we currently have," according to an op-ed in The Washington Examiner.
"Under the proposal, the Department of Education and Department of Labor would be merged together into the Department of Education and the Workforce, or DEW," writes Shiyi Zhang, a policy and government affairs intern with the National Taxpayers Union.
"Consolidating the two departments would not only eliminate unnecessary administrative structures, but also allow the agency to develop an education-to-career pipeline through an integrated system to help students and workers thrive in the 21st century. With the increasing emphasis on workforce training in modern society, it makes perfect sense to combine the two departments since both of them are getting people ready for the workforce."
Although the plan has the support of Education Secretary Betsy DeVos, teachers unions hammered the idea. Lily Eskelsen García, president of the National Education Association, said that the merger is "at best ill-conceived and poorly timed and at worst are an attempt to distract the American public from the humanitarian crisis [President Trump] created along the U.S.-Mexico border," according to The Washington Post.
"Centralizing these development programs in one bureau would save taxpayers money by reducing spending in programs with similar objectives and ensuring the effectiveness of these programs in advancing economic growth. The streamlined bureau would also increase transparency in government spending by standardizing requirements on eligibility and participation for relevant programs," Zhang writes.
"Of course, the federal bureaucracy needs more than just internal reorganizations to function more efficiently and use taxpayer dollars more effectively. But streamlining the executive branch would be a positive step for taxpayers who rely on a well-functioning federal government."
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