As the Trump Administration continues to “flood the zone” with actions that aim to disrupt and destroy a wide swath of important federal programs, it’s hard to keep up—and that’s the point. There are so many fronts on which to fight that sometimes you can’t help but wonder if every outrage is worth the energy to resist.

Take, for example, the revelation in federal court two weeks ago that the U.S. Department of Education (ED) has signed an interagency agreement with the U.S. Department of Labor (DOL) to manage two ED programs, the Carl D. Perkins Career and Technical Education (CTE) Act and the Adult Education and Family Literacy Act. Because the laws authorizing those programs require the Secretary of Education to direct them, the interagency agreement is ridiculous and likely illegal. Yet, with all that’s going on, does it really matter where these programs are administered? Is it worth the fight?

Yes. Relocating these programs would advance the goal of shuttering ED, undermine the programs’ effectiveness, and start turning back the clock on education and workforce development policy to days we don’t want to revisit. The Democratic leaders in Congress who are leading the charge against the interagency agreement need our support.

ED’s new political leaders say the transfer is needed to provide “a coordinated federal education and workforce system.” It’s not.

I worked for ED for 26 years, most of that time in the Office of Career, Technical, and Adult Education (OCTAE) that houses these programs. I know how tightly coordinated these programs already are, or at least were before President Trump took office in January. Under previous presidents (including during Mr. Trump’s first term) , the presidential appointees who led OCTAE and DOL’s Employment and Training Administration (ETA) talked frequently to identify opportunities for collaboration. Teams of OCTAE and ETA career employees met weekly to plan joint activities to implement the Workforce Innovation and Opportunity Act (WIOA). Years of collaboration have built strong relationships across the two units. We don’t need to move programs to achieve the coordination that ED’s leaders say they are seeking.

The real aim of the interagency agreement is to start dismantling ED. Project 2025 recommended relocating the OCTAE programs, as well as all of ED’s higher education programs, to ETA at DOL as part of the larger agenda to shut down ED. This is the opening salvo to redistribute ED programs across the federal government so that ED can be closed.

The Bad Old Days of Vocational Education

The authors of Project 2025 didn’t articulate a rationale for the relocation beyond wanting to abolish ED, but the idea that OCTAE education programs would be better administered alongside short-term job training programs signals a worrisome shift in federal policy, reminiscent of the “vocational education” that this country abandoned decades ago. When Secretary of Education Linda McMahon was in high school 60 years ago, vocational education taught certain students a narrow set of skills for specific jobs, much as DOL’s job training programs do today, in the expectation that they would immediately enter the workforce after high school. The “certain” students tracked into vocational education were disproportionately from low-income families and students of color.

Today, the CTE programs supported by the Perkins Act serve a very different purpose. The definition of CTE established by Congress requires programs to provide “rigorous academic content and relevant technical knowledge and skills needed to prepare for further education and careers in current or emerging professions.” CTE begins with exposure to careers in middle school, continues with career development and skill-building in high school, and can culminate in a certificate, associate’s degree, or a bachelor’s degree.

Perkins also directs state agencies to align their CTE programs with state academic standards, support programs of study that include academic and technical courses, and to teach students “all aspects of an industry,” and not the rote skills of a specific job. More than 80 percent of the high school students who concentrate their studies in CTE choose to enroll in higher education.

In contrast, DOL’s WIOA training programs are intended to help individuals who are out of work get back quickly into a job. The programs’ median length is 32 weeks, and 25 percent of them are 12 weeks or less. The most common programs are in ground transportation, such as commercial truck diving, and nursing occupations that require less than an associate’s degree.

The law governing adult education also promotes alignment with state academic standards. The GED should be a passport to higher education, not a final destination. Transitioning adult learners to postsecondary education is key to their being able to access middle-class jobs. Moving adult education to DOL would diminish this focus and sever its connections to higher education.

Maintaining the Educational Focus of CTE and Adult Education is Key to Their Success

Aligning CTE and adult education with state academic standards, raising learner aspirations, and widening their career horizons has increased the effectiveness of these programs. Last year, a systematic review of rigorous, causal research found that participating in CTE in high school increases academic achievement and the likelihood of graduating and enhances college readiness. Similarly, effective adult education models like LaGuardia Community College’s Bridge to Health and Business program have strong academic content and focus explicitly on college preparation and connecting learners to postsecondary education.

Removing these programs from ED and administering them as job training programs would undermine their success. Linda McMahon may be nostalgic for her high school days, but the rest of us shouldn’t be. It’s worth the fight to keep these programs at ED.