Teachers’ unions are joining a group of parents and other organizations in a new lawsuit aiming to stop the dismantling of the U.S. Department of Education.
The case, filed in Maryland federal court Monday, was brought by the National Education Association, NAACP, AFSCME Maryland Council 3 and a group of public school parents.
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The suit argues that the move is a “dismantling of the Department by executive fiat” and that federal departments can only be created and dissolved by acts of Congress.
They also claim the move could affect vulnerable students, including those with individual learning plans and students in impoverished areas — students who have historically relied more upon federal dollars for education funding.
“As a parent of a child with disabilities who has an Individual Education Program (IEP), I am deeply troubled by the severe cuts the Trump Administration has made to the Department of Education,” Mara Greengrass, a Maryland mother who is a plaintiff in the litigation, said in a statement.
“Funding for special education and the Department’s oversight have been crucial in ensuring my son receives the quality education he — and every child in this country — deserves.”
President Donald Trump signed an executive order last week drastically cutting the workforce there, directing Education Secretary Linda McMahon to “the maximum extent appropriate and permitted by law, take all necessary steps to facilitate the closure of the Department of Education and return authority over education to the States and local communities while ensuring the effective and uninterrupted delivery of services, programs, and benefits on which Americans rely.”
The president’s executive order also transferred primary functions to other departments. The college student loan portfolio will now be administered by the Small Business Administration. Disability-related programs will be overseen by the Department of Health and Human Services.
In the executive order, the president cited that the “federal education bureaucracy is not working.”
Recent test scores from “The Nation’s Report Card” show that 70% of eighth graders were below proficiency in reading, and 72% were below proficiency in math.
“Gutting the Department of Education will hurt all students by sending class sizes soaring, cutting job training programs, making higher education more out of reach, taking away special education services for students with disabilities, and gutting student civil rights protections,” NEA President Becky Pringle said in a statement.
Pringle added: “Parents, educators, and community leaders know this will widen the gaps in education, which is why we will do everything in our power to protect our students and their futures.”
