The dismantling of the Department of Education by the Trump Administration was arrested in the Court on Thursday, when a federal judge blocked the government’s efforts to transfer its operations to other agencies and ordered the agency to hire the dismissed personnel, deciding that the Trump administration attempts to rehabilitate the agency were illegal and caused a generalized disturbance.
Key data
Judge Myong J. Joun granted a court order against the Trump Administration, which blocks the mass dismissal of approximately 50% of the workforce of the Department of Education and orders the Government to again hire personnel while the litigation progresses.
It also blocks Trump’s directive to transfer the federal student loan portfolio and the special education programs of the Department of Education to the Administration of small businesses and the Department of Health and Human Services, respectively.
The states led by Democrats, school districts and teachers unions demanded that the Trump administration in a federal court for their measures in the Department of Education, which are part of a broader effort of the Trump administration to dismantle the agency.
Although the Trump administration states that the dismissals of its staff were necessary for “efficiency”, Joun ruled that “there is no evidence” that mass dismissals have done the most efficient things; Instead, he said that “the registration is full of evidence otherwise” and suggested that the reductions of personnel “will probably paralyze” the Department of Education, arguing that Trump is using personnel reductions to “effectively dismantle the department without an authorizing statute.”
The Trump administration does not have the authority to get rid of the Department of Education without the approval of Congress, Joun ruled, arguing that Trump’s order to get rid of the department is “directly against” the objectives of the Congress when creating the agency, and the Executive Power has no “power to dismantle departments and programs created by Congress through mass dismissals”.
The Trump Administration and the Department of Education have not yet responded to the requests for comments, while the plaintiffs who presented the case applauded the Joun’s ruling, with the president of the American Federation of Masters, Randi Weingen, qualifying it as “a first step to reverse this war against knowledge and weakening of the wide basis for the opportunity of broad base” Skye Perryman, saying that the ruling means that the “disastrous mass layoffs of government career officials are blocked while litigating this action of the tremendously disturbing and illegal agency.”
Cita Crucial
“An apartment without enough employees to perform the functions imposed by the law is not an apartment at all,” Joun wrote. “You cannot ask this court to cover your eyes while department employees are continuously fired and the units are transferred until the department becomes a shadow.”
What to pay attention to
Joun’s ruling will only be temporary while the case remains pending, and it is likely that the Trump administration requests an appeal court to cancel it and allow the massive layoffs of the agency again. Joun or other court could still rule that layoffs must stop permanently or allow the Trump administration to resume the dismantling of the agency.
What impacts have the mass dismissals of the Department of Education?
The evidence presented in the demand suggests that the significant cuts in the staff of the Education Department have seriously affected the agency’s ability to carry out their work. Citing testimonies and other evidence presented in the case, Joun pointed out in his ruling that personnel reductions have “effectively destroyed” some of the “key components” of the department and have left the agency “unable to perform many of their essential functions, established by law.” The agency fired most of its lawyers to advise it on key issues, much of the personnel who work in federal aid for students, all its communications staff, a team of relations with fellows, almost all the staff of the Institute of Education Sciences and the entire Office of International Education and Foreign Languages of the Agency, among others, according to the litigation. Some of the possible impacts that personnel reductions have had in the groups that filed the demand include the incorrect distribution of federal funds, the ignorance of student complaints about discrimination or aggression, the reduction of federal subsidies – which could increase universities for students -, interruptions in requests for financial aid and the lack of supervision on the administration of loans. The school districts also mentioned uncertainty about their budgets, since they will ignore how much they will receive from federal funds, and indicated that important services could be affected if federal funds are cut or if financing is delayed due to personnel shortage.
Key history
Trump has made the dismantling of the Department of Education an important part of his agenda. The Department of Education was established by Congress in 1979, but the conservatives have suggested more recently than they would prefer to leave education in the hands of the States, and the abolition of the agency was among the proposals presented in the right -wing political agenda Project 2025. Trump signed an executive order in March aim and ordering the Secretary of Education Linda McMahon to “take all necessary measures to facilitate” the closure of the agency and “return authority over education to local states and communities.” However, the Trump administration has not been able to get rid of the agency completely, since doing so would depend on Congress, and instead has focused on taking measures such as mass layoffs and moving some of its functions to other agencies. The agency’s workforce cuts are part of a broader series of mass layoffs that have taken place throughout the Executive Power since Trump’s possession, which have been carried out with the help of billionaire Elon Musk and his government efficiency department, and Joun is the last federal judge to fail against those dismissals while the litigation progresses.
This article was originally published by Forbes Us.
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