Lyndon Baines Johnson Department of Education Building in the photo on November 25, 2024 (photo Shaneen Miranda/States newsroom)
Washington – a group of 21 democratic lawyers sued the administration of Trump Thursday above US Education Department efforts This week to reduce over 1,300 employees.
The complaint is asked by the American District Court for the Massachusetts district to block the department before the implementation of “Power reduction“Or RIF, Action and” Directive of President Donald Trump in order to dismantle the Education Department. “
General prosecutors in Arizona, California, Colorado, Connecticut, Delaware, Colombia’s district, Hawaii, Illinois, Maine, Maryland, Massachusetts, Michigan, Minnesota, Nevada, New York, New Jersey, Oregon, Rhode Island, Vermont, Washington and Wisconsin and Wisconsin signed in suit.
The group said that RIF is “equivalent to the keyproof, statutory functions of the department, causing huge damage” of their countries and educational systems.
The leaders of the 45-year-old agency said on Tuesday that they would draw a significant number of agency employees, which causes concern about how the department can Perform your duties When roughly half your working strength.
General prosecutors argued that “massive RIF is not supported by any actual reasoning or specific arrangements regarding the elimination of alleged waste in the department – rather RIF is part of the opposition of the president and secretary of the president and secretary (Linda) McMahon towards the entire Education Department.”
Democratic Prosecutor General Arizona Kris Mayes told journalists in Phoenix on Thursday morning that the cuts of the Education Department would be devastating for students of public schools in Arizona, but especially for those who live in rural areas and who have difficulty learning.
“This is part of the deliberate effort to break up public education in this country,” said Mayes. “This will harm students, families and schools, especially in rural areas that are based on federal support. And let’s explain that there is absolutely no way that the Education Department can perform their legal obligations with half of the labor force.”
Madi Biedermann, a spokesman for the department, said in a written statement to the newsroom that the agency’s RIF “was implemented carefully and in accordance with all applicable regulations and regulations”, and “are strategic, internal cuts that will not directly affect students and family.”
Some of the basic functions of the department include the administration of federal student assistance, enforcement of civil rights, ensuring the financing of the title and for low -income school districts and guaranteeing free public education for disabled children through the Act on the education of disabled people.
Biedermann said that the cuts will not affect employees working on the application for student facilitate, the Student Loan Service Act and the Act on basic and medium or ESEA, the title funds. This did not affect employees in the Educational Programs Office or the administration of rehabilitation services who serve disabled children, she wrote.
She said that the Civil Rights Office “will continue to investigate in the case of complaints and vigorously enforce federal regulations regarding civil rights.”
But according to the analysis carried out by the NON -Profit organization Education reform nowwhich is in favor of larger educational resources, based on a given union representing employees of the education department, dismissals make huge cuts in the Civil Rights Office, the Federal Student Aid Office and the Institute of Educational Sciences.
Closure of the department
Shortly after the announcement of the exemptions, McMahon confirmed Fox News that the cuts were the first step on the road to closing the department.
McMahon said that “the directive for me apparently is the closing of the Education Department” and he perceived the release as the first step towards eliminating what he considers “bureaucratic bloating”.
Trump conducted a campaign on the basis of the promise of closing the agency in his pursuit of the transfer of education “back to the States” – despite a significant part of financing and supervision at the state and local level.
The department was also the main goal of Trump and the billionaire of the White House adviser Elon Musk to reduce the expenditure of the federal government and eliminate what they consider to waste.
Arizona Mirror Reporter Caitlin Sievers contributed to this report.
