Education Department officials planned layoffs in March to cut more than 1300 workers, the largest in department history. Photo / The Washington Post
A divided Supreme Court today cleared the way for the Trump administration to sharply shrink the Education Department, one of the cornerstones of the President’s efforts to radically downsize the federal government.
The justices lifted a temporary lower-court ruling that prevented Trump officials from slashing more than a third of the department’s more than 4100 workers and shifting some of its functions to the states and other departments as litigation over the cuts plays out in the lower courts.
As is common with cases decided on the emergency docket, the majority did not explain its rationale for the decision. Justice Sonia Sotomayor wrote a scathing dissent that was joined by the court’s two other liberals, labelling the ruling “indefensible” and a major expansion of presidential power.
“When the Executive publicly announces its intent to break the law, and then executes on that promise, it is the Judiciary’s duty to check that lawlessness, not expedite it,” Sotomayor wrote.
She added the court “hands the Executive the power to repeal statutes by firing all those necessary to carry them out. The majority is either wilfully blind to the implications of its ruling or naive, but either way the threat to our Constitution’s separation of powers is grave”.
The ruling continues a winning streak for the President’s efforts to trim the federal Government and assert his authority over the executive branch. The justices have already signed off on Trump’s plans to fire thousands of other federal workers, remove the heads of independent agencies and freeze up to US$65 million ($108.8m) in grants to alleviate teacher shortages. The administration said the grants promoted diversity, equity and inclusion.
Trump has said he wants to dismantle the Education Department because it would allow “children and their families the opportunity to escape a system that is failing them”, but administration officials acknowledge that would require legislation because Congress created the department. He has also argued trimming the department would make it more efficient and increase accountability.
The sweeping cuts hit some offices particularly hard as the administration worked to shrink the agency’s work and impact. That includes the Office for Civil Rights, which has lost about half its staff and seven of its 11 regional offices but faces a deep backlog of cases. It also includes the Federal Student Aid office, charged with overseeing the servicers and contractors who power the student loan programme.
Another hard-hit office was the Institute for Education Sciences, which until this year sponsored a wide swath of research into best practices. The office also runs the National Assessment of Educational Progress, sometimes called the Nation’s Report Card, which has been cut back.
Education Secretary Linda McMahon initiated the largest job cut in the department’s history in March, soon after she was sworn in. Officials said more than 1300 workers would be laid off and about 600 others had accepted offers to leave.
Soon after, Trump issued an executive order directing McMahon to “take all necessary steps to facilitate the closure of the Department of Education”. He has also said he intends to move the federal student loan and special needs programmes out of the department.
The department has plans to eliminate office space in San Francisco, New York, Boston, Chicago, Dallas and Cleveland, as well as consolidate staff from three buildings to one in DC.
Trump officials have said the cuts would affect every aspect of the department’s operation, but it will continue its statutorily required functions. McMahon requested an appropriation of more than US$66 billion for next year’s budget in June.
McMahon hailed the high court’s ruling in a statement, calling it a “significant win for students and families”.
“Today, the Supreme Court again confirmed the obvious: the President of the United States, as the head of the Executive Branch, has the ultimate authority to make decisions about staffing levels, administrative organisation, and day-to-day operations of federal agencies.”
More than 20 states, teachers’ unions and school districts filed challenges to the cuts and the lawsuits were later consolidated. They said in a filing with the Supreme Court that the cuts would effectively strip the department “down to the plywood” with deleterious effects on schools, districts and children across the country. They contend the department can no longer carry out the functions Congress has mandated.
Sheria Smith, president of the American Federation of Government Employees Local 252, urged the administration to reconsider the cuts. Smith was one of the Education Department employees targeted as part of the downsizing.
“This effort from the Trump administration to dismantle the Department of Education is playing with the futures of millions of Americans, and after just four months, the consequences are already evident across our education system,” Smith said.
A federal judge in Massachusetts agreed with that assessment in May, issuing a preliminary injunction that required the Trump administration to rehire all staff that were cut and reset all changes made at the department to what existed before Trump took office.
US District Judge Myong J. Joun, a Biden appointee, wrote testimonials by department employees and others “paint a stark picture of the irreparable harm” the cuts would cause if not reversed, particularly on vulnerable students.
“Prior to the [reduction in force], the Department was already struggling to meet its goals, so it is only reasonable to expect that an RIF of this magnitude will likely cripple the Department,” Joun wrote.
The US Circuit Court of Appeals for the 1st Circuit affirmed that decision last month, before Trump officials filed an emergency appeal with the Supreme Court seeking to put a hold on the ruling. Solicitor General D. John Sauer argued that the courts had overreached.
“The Constitution vests the Executive Branch, not district courts, with the authority to make judgments about how many employees are needed to carry out an agency’s statutory functions, and whom they should be,” Sauer wrote.
The Education Department was created in 1979 under President Jimmy Carter. It is responsible for administering the US$1.6 trillion federal student loan programme, grants to elementary and secondary schools, achievement tests and civil rights laws in schools.