The Lyndon Baines Johnson Department of Education building pictured in November 2024 (Photo by Shauneen Miranda/States Newsroom)
WASHINGTON – A lawsuit coalition seeking to block President Donald Trump’s efforts to disband the U.S. Department of Education expanded its Tuesday lawsuit to include objections to recent interagency agreements aimed at shifting the department’s responsibilities to other Cabinet-level agencies.
The Alliance of Labor Unions and School Districts also added a major disability rights group to its ranks in an amended complaint that details how the Nov. 18 department announcement of six interagency agreements could harm students.
The agreements to transfer several education-related responsibilities to four other departments were met with swift backlash from Democratic officials, unions and interest groups, who questioned the legality of the transfer and expressed concerns about the harm to students, families and schools as a result.
“Dispersing Department of Education programs among agencies without education expertise or key agency infrastructure will reduce the effectiveness and efficiency of those programs and prevent the type of synergy Congress intended to achieve by consolidating federal education activities into a single Cabinet-level agency,” wrote the coalition, represented by the legal group Democracy Forward corrected complaint.
The expanded lawsuit seeks declaratory and injunctive relief for what it calls the administration’s “unlawful efforts to disband the Department of Education,” pointing to interagency agreements, mass layoffs at the department earlier this year and the implementation of an executive order that called on Education Secretary Linda McMahon to facilitate the closure of her own department.
The Department for Education clarified in fact sheets on contracts with the Departments of Labour, Home Affairs, Health and Social Care and said it would “maintain all statutory responsibilities and continue to oversee these programmes”.
Department of Education axe
Trump tried to throw an ax at the 46-year-old department, saying he wanted to send education “back to the states.” Much of school funding and oversight already occurs at the state and local levels.
The original lawsuit, filed in March this year Massachusetts federal courtwas brought by the American Federation of Teachers, its Massachusetts chapter, AFSCME Council 93, the American Association of University Professors, the International Union of Service Employees and two Massachusetts school districts.
Tuesday’s filing added The Arc of the United States, an advocacy group for people with intellectual and developmental disabilities, as a plaintiff.
At the beginning of this year, the case was combined with another March lawsuit related to Democratic attorneys general in Arizona, California, Colorado, Connecticut, Delaware, District of Columbia, Hawaii, Illinois, Maine, Maryland, Massachusetts, Michigan, Minnesota, Nevada, New York, New Jersey, Oregon, Rhode Island, Vermont, Washington State and Wisconsin.
“It’s no surprise that blue states and unions are more concerned about preserving DC’s bureaucracy than about giving parents, students and teachers greater control over education and improving the efficient delivery of funds and services,” Madi Biedermann, a department spokeswoman, said in a statement shared with States Newsroom.
The Supreme Court put a fleeting spotlight on Trump’s plan
In May, a federal judge in Massachusetts issued a preliminary injunction in a consolidated case, blocking the administration’s efforts, including reducing efforts at an agency that was gutting over 1,300 employeesTrump’s executive order calling for McMahon to facilitate closing your own department and directive to transfer some services to other federal agencies.
AND federal appeals court it upheld that order in June, prompting the administration to ask the Supreme Court to intervene.
The nation’s highest court in July temporarily suspended lower court orders, allowing the administration to continue its liquidation efforts for now.
