Slimmed-Down Department
Other parts of the deal, however, are easy to grasp.
The framework would also consolidate nearly 50 smaller federal programs—including those focused on education technology and physical education—into a block grant, a big priority for Kline, the House education chairman.
And it would enshrine in law the Preschool Development Grants program, an early-childhood-education initiative that’s a huge priority for Murray, the senior ranking democrat on the Senate education committee. But the new program would be housed at the Department of Health and Human Services, not the Education Department as some Democrats had first hoped. The Education Department would jointly administer the program.
The agreement does not include Title I portability, which would have allowed the flagship federal aid for disadvantaged students to follow children to the schools of their choice, in states that elected to participate.