Teachers' union, school districts sue Trump admin over Education Department dismantling
The nation's second largest teachers' union, two other unions representing school employees and a pair of Massachusetts school districts on Monday filed a lawsuit against the Trump administration over its attempt to dismantle the U.S. Department of Education.
The American Federation of Teachers and its Massachusetts chapter joined the Easthampton School District and Somerville Public School Committee in challenging Trump's executive order and mass layoffs of more than 1,300 workers inside the federal agency. The American Federation of State, County and Municipal Employees and the American Association of University Professors also are involved in the litigation.
"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,” Randi Weingarten, the president of the American Federation of Teachers, said of the lawsuit filed in federal court in Boston.
President Donald Trump signed the executive order on Thursday, attempting to eliminate the Education Department after reducing the agency's workforce by nearly half. A day later, the president said he would be directing other federal agencies to take over some of the Education Department's current functions, including special education, Title I and Pell Grants.
Those services "will be fully preserved," Trump said Friday.
Also Monday, the NAACP, the National Education Association, and a Maryland union representing education staffers are planning to file a separate federal lawsuit, said Eric Jotkoff, a spokesperson for the National Education Association.
The groups allege that Trump's executive order and mass layoffs put vulnerable students at risk, jeopardize education jobs and reduces access to Pell Grants. The groups are supported by the Student Defense and Education Law Center.
"Education is power. By firing half of the workforce at the Department of Education, Trump is not only seeking to dismantle an agency ‒ he is deliberately destroying the pathway many Americans have to a better life," wrote Derrick Johnson, president and CEO of the NAACP, in a statement.
Trump has cited low student test scores and the nation's high price point on education as reasons for wanting to shutter the department. Congress still must pass legislation to close the Department of Education, but Trump's workforce reduction is already helping to shrink it.
In an email to Paste BN, Harrison Fields, principal deputy press secretary for the White House, criticized the two lawsuits.
"Instead of playing politics with baseless lawsuits, these groups should ditch the courtroom and work with the Trump administration and states on improving the classroom.” Fields wrote. “The NEA and NAACP have done nothing to advance the educational outcomes of America’s students and the latest NAEP scores prove that."
Contact Kayla Jimenez at kjimenez@usatoday.com. Follow her on X at @kaylajjimenez.
(This story has been updated with more information.)