How will the Education Closures affect Americans?
US President Donald Trump moved to remove the Department of Education. But he cannot close his agency without legislation.
WASHINGTON – The Trump administration on June 6 asked the Supreme Court to dismantle the education division and fire hundreds of workers.
President Donald Trump is trying to fulfill his campaign promise to end the education sector and move school policies to the state.
In its emergency appeal, the administration said the administration should stop the judge’s orders blocking Trump from carrying out those moves while democratically driven states, school districts and teacher unions.
“The Constitution gives the administrative bodies, not the district courts, the authority to give judgments on the number of employees needed to perform the statutory functions of the agency and who they should be,” Attorney General John Saur told the Supreme Court.
US District Judge Myung-Goo Jun said the White House decision to fire more than 1,300 workers in March prevented the federal government from effectively implementing legally necessary programs and services. Such changes cannot be made without the approval of the Congress, which created the department in 1979, Joun ruled.
The Boston-based First Circuit Court of Appeals upheld the decision. The court said the administration did not provide evidence to counter the “recorded findings on the impact of obstacles” of mass shootings and the transfer of some functions to other agencies.
“In this case, what is at stake in the crisis is whether the Cabinet department for nearly half a century will be allowed to perform legally assigned functions or prevent them from doing so by the massive termination of employees aimed at effectively closing the department.
The executive order signed by Trump in March directed Education Secretary Linda McMahon to “promote the closure of the Department of Education.”
McMahon announced that a combination of massive layoffs and voluntary acquisitions would eliminate about half of the agency’s workforce. This would have cut staff from 4,133 workers to 2,183 when Trump began his second term in January.
The administration also hopes that the Small Business Bureau will take over student loans and move special education services to the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services.
Joun’s order blocked the administration from transferring those functions and called for the department to revive workers fired.
The appeals court said Trump doesn’t need to have as many education employees as his previous administrations, but he can’t cut so much that he can’t pay as many functions as Congress intended.
The Justice Department told the Supreme Court that harm to the government as workers have to be rehired as the lawsuit continues is greater than the harm challengers said they would suffer a decline in departmental services.
