Federal education and workforce officials say they’re seeing early progress in their effort to merge major federal programs, and Alabama leaders say the move fits with work the state already has underway.
The partnership between the U.S. departments of education and labor is aiming to give states a simpler way to manage career and workforce programs. The agencies have started moving key pieces of the Workforce Innovation and Opportunity Act to the Department of Labor, including the state plan portal and payment systems.
Nick Moore, former head of Alabama’s Governor’s Office of Education and Workforce Transformation and now acting assistant secretary for the U.S. Department of Education, said early results show the shift is already reducing red tape…