The announcement that the U.S. Department of Education is entering into a partnership with the Department of Labor to co-administer federal elementary and secondary education programs is disappointing.

For more than four decades, federal K-12 programs have operated under a clear, coherent, and stable governance structure that has enabled school leaders to plan, execute, and deliver supplemental academic supports and services to our nation’s most in-need students. The proposed changes to now include the Department of Labor in this mix unnecessarily complicate this arrangement. More bureaucracy and red tape are not the answer.

More importantly, we are concerned that the Labor Department’s focus on training and workforce development will shift attention away from the core academic and youth development efforts that are fundamental priorities for pre-K-8 school leaders. Young children are students to be educated first and foremost, not future employees to be trained for the workforce.

We believe there is an important federal role in education performed by the U.S. Department of Education and fear that this reorganization is another step toward dismantling the department.