Teachers’ unions file suit to block dismantling of Education Department News
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Teachers’ unions file suit to block dismantling of Education Department

A coalition of educators, school districts, and unions filed a complaint in a Massachusetts federal court on Monday against the Trump administration to prevent the dismantling of the US Department of Education.

This suit comes in response to President Donald Trump’s executive order issued last week, titled “Improving Education Outcomes by Empowering Parents, States, and Communities.” The order essentially condemns the education department as an “unaccountable bureaucracy” that has “plainly failed our children, our teachers, and our families.” It further vows to “return authority over education to States and local communities,” and “take all necessary steps to facilitate the closure of the Department of Education.” Finally, it also commandeers the secretary of education to “terminate illegal discrimination obscured under the label ‘diversity, equity, and inclusion.'”

This executive order itself follows a wave of layoffs across the education department that resulted in reduction of half its workforce and triggered a group of Democrat-controlled states to file their own complaint against Trump. The plaintiffs in this case make an explicit reference to those layoffs in the complaint.

Alleging that the executive order is unlawful and harms “millions of students, school districts, and educators across the nation,” the plaintiffs submit that neither the president nor the secretary of education has the authority to eliminate an agency created by congress without its approval.

The plaintiffs and their advocates released joint statements on the complaint, some of which read:

At the end of the day, the White House is not just illegally dismantling a department – they’re dismantling the futures of millions of children and working families across the country…

And over the last five decades, Congress has fulfilled this mission to help poor kids, kids with disabilities, first generation college kids, kids who want to work in a trade, and 45 million Americans with student debt. Now, wielding a sledgehammer, this president is destroying that promise for this and future generations…

Trying to abolish the department as one of the president’s first acts—whether through an executive order, a ‘reduction in force’ or concepts of a plan to shift services elsewhere—is not only illegal, it sends a message that the president doesn’t care about broad based opportunity, doesn’t care about knowledge, and doesn’t care about this country’s future…

The Executive Order abolishing the Department of Education is not only illegal, but — as is to be expected from this administration — just plain cruel…

Among other things, the plaintiffs are seeking a declaratory judgment that the executive order directing the shuttering of the education department is unlawful; and that the mass reduction in the department’s workforce violates the constitution and the Administrative Procedure Act, and is “arbitrary, capricious, or an abuse of discretion.” The plaintiffs are also seeking injunctive relief and a stay to block the Trump administration from continuing to carry out the layoffs and from taking further steps to shut down the education department.

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