New York AG leads coalition against dismantling of Education Department

(CN) — The Trump administration doesn’t have the authority to shutter the Department of Education, New York Attorney General Letitia James and 20 other states’ attorneys general say in a lawsuit filed Thursday.

Spurred by an announcement Tuesday that the agency would reduce its staff by 50%, effective March 21, the states claim the move effectively incapacitates the federal agency responsible for funding an array of education programs and administering student aid.

“This massive reduction in force is equivalent to incapacitating key, statutorily-mandated functions of the department, causing immense damage to plaintiff states and their educational systems,” the states’ attorneys general say in the lawsuit.

The administration said it placed about 1,378 of the agency’s 4,133 workers on administrative leave. Those employees join nearly 600 workers who accepted buyout offers over the last seven weeks.

“This administration may claim to be stopping waste and fraud, but it is clear that their only mission is to take away the necessary services, resources and funding that students and their families need,” James said in a statement. “Firing half of the Department of Education’s workforce will hurt students throughout New York and the nation, especially low-income students and those with disabilities who rely on federal funding.”

While the states say the executive branch has the authority to impose reductions in force, they claim the Trump administration doesn’t have the authority to override Congress’s exclusive authority to abolish executive agencies or discontinue their functions.

“Nothing in the numerous statutes creating the department and describing its mandated functions can be construed as authorizing the executive to gut an agency such that it can no longer meet its statutory obligations,” the states say.

They point to numerous statements made by Trump administration officials stating the intent to shutter the Department of Education completely.

In one March 11 Fox News interview, Education Secretary Linda McMahon confirmed the workforce reductions are part of a mandate from Trump to shut down the agency.

“His directive to me, clearly, is to shut down the Department of Education, which we know we’ll have to work with Congress, you know, to get that accomplished,” McMahon said in the interview. “But what we did today was to take the first step of eliminating what I think is bureaucratic bloat.”

The states add that several essential segments of the agency have been gutted because of the recent workforce reductions, including the office responsible for enforcing federal civil rights in schools, the Office of General Counsel and the office responsible for special education and rehabilitative services.

The states also say the workforce reductions will have severe impacts on K-12 education including teacher shortages, a loss of professional development and a lack of funding for assistive technology for students with disabilities.

“Regardless of what alternative resources are put in the place of the Department of Education, the process of the department’s dismantling will create and has created chaos, disruption, uncertainty, delays and confusion for plaintiff states and their residents,” the states say.

According to the states, the Department of Education’s programs serve nearly 18,200 school districts and over 50 million K-12 students across the country. Its higher education programs also serve more than 12 million postsecondary students annually.

The state’s attorneys general are seeking a court order to halt the administration’s attempts to shutter the agency.

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