The Trump administration's campaign to dismantle the education sector brought out a pair of court agenda on Monday, as opponents called the plan an attempt to circumvent Congressional authorities.
The first lawsuit was filed in federal court in Massachusetts by the American Federation of Teachers, a teachers' union. American University Professors Association. Two public school districts in Massachusetts. Within hours, the NAACP, the National Federation of Education Associations and other critics brought their own cases in federal courts in Maryland.
The challenge came four days after President Trump signed an executive order directing Secretary of Education Linda McMahon to take all the necessary steps to promote departmental closures.
The day after the order, Trump announced that the Department of Health and Human Services would oversee nutrition programs and special education services, ensuring small business managers manage the government's $1.6 trillion student loan portfolio.
The education division, created in 1979, cannot be closed without Congressional consent. The Massachusetts lawsuit alleges that the moves since the Trump administration came to power in January “stricken the department's ability to perform legally necessary functions,” including efforts to roughly halve the department's workforce.
Ilana Kreptin, chairman of Summerville, Massachusetts, a plaintiff in Massachusetts, said the education sector is the “ground of equitable public education.”
“Destroying it would cause real harm not only to our students and schools, but also to our communities across the country,” Kreptin said.
Educational department spokesperson Maddie Biederman said all federal mandatory programs remain at the agency and the administration has pledged to work with Congress to close the department.
“Instead of providing useful solutions to improve student outcomes, unions will once again mislead to bind Americans to the American education bureaucracy,” Biederman said, referring to the American Federation of Teachers.
Top Republicans on Capitol Hill — including Sen. Bill Cassidy of Louisiana and chairman of the Senate Committee on Health, Education, Labor and Pensions — have committed to helping promote the president, who has been accepted by several right groups.
However, rank and file lawmakers are expected to face great pressure on both opposition to the plan before the vote is made.
Charles L. Welch, president of the American Association of State University, said last week that he was “disappointed” by Trump's order, urging lawmakers to ignore the White House and help save the department.
The education sector limits the power of what is taught in American classrooms. Its main job is to distribute money to schools, enforce civil rights laws, and implement federal student aid programs for university students. Historically, it has played a major role in funding for data collection and education research.
It is not clear when laws that close or rebuild the department will come to vote.
In the Maryland case, the NAACP and the nation's largest teachers union, NEA, were among the plaintiffs who argued that the administration's tactics for the past two months amounted to “the de facto dismantling of the de facto division by Executive Fiat.”
“Donald Trump's Education Secretary has confirmed that the Department of Education cannot be legally closed without Congress,” said Aaron Ement of the National Student Law Defense Network, which supports help represent the National Education Association in the case.
“Even so, that's exactly what they do for all their intents and purposes,” he added. “It's a brave violation of the law that overturns the lives of countless students and families.”
Derrick Johnson, NAACP president and CEO, accused Trump of doing far more than he attempts to scale back or close his agency.
“Education is power,” Johnson said. Referring to Trump, he added, “He is deliberately destroying the pathways in which many Americans can lead better lives.”
The NAACP and other Maryland challengers have urged federal judges to continue dismantling the department and McMahon to ban the department from implementing the March 20 executive order.
In another privacy-centric case in Maryland, a federal judge determined Monday that the education department could not provide sensitive data to the efficiency of the government led by Elon Musk.
