President Donald Trump is facing his first legal challenges over his plans to eliminate the Department of Education.
On Monday, advocacy group Democracy Forward filed a lawsuit on behalf of a coalition of teachers and unions — including the American Federation of Teachers and the American Association of University Professors — aimed at blocking Trump’s efforts to dismantle the Department of Education.
“Defendants seek to eliminate the U.S. Department of Education,” the complaint’s opening sentence said. “The first step: fire the people that do the work of the Department.”
Trump signed an executive order last week directing Education Secretary Linda McMahon to begin the process of eliminating the Department of Education to “return authority over education to the States” — even as states already have significant control. That process was already happening — the department fired over 1,300 of its employees on March 11 as one of its first steps to gut the agency.
The lawsuit said that Trump’s actions are illegal because he cannot eliminate the Education Department without Congress, and firing staff impedes the department’s congressionally mandated duties to operate various educational programs.
The Department of Education is tasked with overseeing the $1.7 trillion student-loan portfolio, managing grants for low-income districts and students with disabilities, carrying out research on kids’ educational progress, and overseeing civil rights investigations.
McMahon previously said that the department’s critical functions, like low-income grants and student-loan administration, will not be disturbed, even as Trump announced student loans will be transferred to the Small Business Administration.
The lawsuit said that no other agency can take over the department’s work without congressional approval and that attempting to do so would bring “enormous harm to borrowers; students hoping to go to college; higher education institutions across the country; teachers and professors; and the entire economy.”
This is the first legal challenge to Trump’s plans; another group of teachers and advocates, including the National Education Association and the NAACP, also announced they would be filing a lawsuit on Monday challenging Trump’s plan to eliminate the Education Department.
The Department of Education did not immediately respond to a request for comment from Business Insider on the lawsuits. Trump said during a meeting with his cabinet on Monday, “I think you’re going to see a tremendous change very quickly having to do with education, and the process has already begun very strongly.”
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