New York Attorney General Letitia James and 20 other state attorneys general sued the Trump administration on Thursday to halt mass layoffs at the U.S. Education Department, charging it would effectively dismantle an agency without congressional authorization.
Earlier this week, the Education Department announced it would be firing about half its workforce, with especially deep cuts to regional civil rights branches, including in New York City. In their announcement, the Democratic attorneys general argued the layoffs are so great that the department would be unable to carry out key functions.
“This administration may claim to be stopping waste and fraud, but it is clear that their only mission is to take away the necessary services, resources and funding that students and their families need,” James said in a statement.
“Firing half of the Department of Education’s workforce will hurt students throughout New York and the nation, especially low-income students and those with disabilities who rely on federal funding. This outrageous effort to leave students behind and deprive them of a quality education is reckless and illegal.”
The lawsuit, filed in federal court in Massachusetts, said the workforce reduction is “equivalent to incapacitating key, statutorily mandated functions of the department” — such as providing funds for high-poverty schools and special education, enforcing laws that prohibit discrimination and administering financial aid.
“Far from being just a ‘first step,’ the layoffs are an effective dismantling of the department,” read the lawsuit, which was also joined by New Jersey, Connecticut and other states. “… Only Congress may abolish an agency it created.”
Fired federal education workers will be placed on administrative leave on March 21, after which the Trump administration insisted the Education Department, under newly minted Education Secretary Linda McMahon, will continue all legally mandated programs. No employees working on student loan servicing or in the special education office were impacted by the layoffs, among other key areas, according to the agency.
“President Trump was elected with a mandate from the American public to return education authority to the states,” said Madi Biedermann, the Education Department’s deputy assistant secretary for communications.
“The Department of Education’s reduction in force was implemented carefully and in compliance with all applicable regulations and laws. They are strategic, internal-facing cuts that will not directly impact students and families.”
New York City public schools receive about $2.3 billion in federal funding each year, more than $1 billion of which is from the Education Department. Other federal agencies pick up the tab for school meals and child care programs.
The Trump administration has floated the idea of moving some of those education funding streams into those other agencies, while sending the responsibilities for others back to the states.
The department’s regional civil rights division in New York City, which was most recently housed in the Jacob K. Javits Federal Office Building in Foley Square, had been tasked with cases involving students with disabilities and a high-profile antisemitism investigation into Columbia University, among other responsibilities. Its offices are being closed and staff laid off.
“We do not yet have a sense of how it will affect our work,” Emma Vadehra, the city’s deputy chancellor for operations and finance, said at a City Council hearing on the mass layoffs.
“It’s certainly quite disappointing on behalf of the public servants and the work they do to enforce our kids’ civil rights in schools, to ensure we get the funding our kids and school systems need and deserve, to have a trillion dollars in federal grants and loans helping our students.”
Biedermann, the Education Department spokeswoman, said civil rights personnel would continue to investigate complaints and enforce laws.
With Daily News Wire Services