Eleven days after Arizona Attorney General Kris Mayes and 20 other Democratic Attorney Generals launched a lawsuit to thwart the Musk/Trump/Vance Central Committee’s halving of the United States Department of Education staff, she and the leading legal officials of California, Colorado, Connecticut, Delaware, Hawaii, Illinois, Maine, Maryland, Massachusetts, Michigan, Minnesota, Nevada, New Jersey, New York, Oregon, Rhode Island, Vermont, Washington, Wisconsin, and the District of Columbia have launched another suit to stop the MAGA-Project 2025 dream to abolish the Department of Education and shift its functions to other parts of the Executive Branch.
In a press release announcing the latest in a series of legal actions against the Musk/Trump/Vance designs to bring the United States back to the Gilded Age when mostly white men of property had enforceable and honored civil rights and privileges, Attorney General Mayes stated:
“The Department of Education was established by Congress, and it is Congress alone that has the authority to eliminate it. The Trump administration’s reckless and unilateral attempt to dismantle this critical agency is illegal and will harm students and families – particularly rural students and students with disabilities. I am seeking a preliminary injunction to stop this chaos and preserve critical services Arizonans rely on.”
In the press release, Mayes and her team further assert:
“…The Trump administration’s attacks on ED have already had serious consequences for families and students throughout the country. Mass layoffs of ED staff have led to the closure of the Department’s Office of Civil Rights locations throughout the country. Critical funding for state school systems has also been delayed. As the attorneys general argue, states rely on billions of dollars every year in funding for elementary and secondary education, services for children with disabilities, vocational education, adult education, and other crucial services. All of these programs will be severely disrupted if the administration’s incapacitation of the Department is not stopped.
Attorney General Mayes and the coalition argue in their lawsuit and motion for a preliminary injunction that the Trump administration’s attacks on ED are illegal and unconstitutional. The Department is an executive agency authorized by Congress, with numerous laws creating its various programs and funding streams. The coalition’s lawsuit asserts that the executive branch does not have the legal authority to unilaterally dismantle it without an act of Congress. In addition, the attorneys general argue that ED’s mass layoffs violate the Administrative Procedures Act.”
With this federal government, see you in court is being stated with increasing regularity.
Stay tuned.
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Having taught various handicapped children for 42 years, I know how important the Department of Education is in ensuring equality of education in every state. If left to individual states, many children and adults would be left out of opportunities to learn.
And therein lies the reason Repugs want to leave education up to the states. Public education comes with a huge pot of money Repugs and their corporate backers would love to get their grubby paws on.
What gets lost in the conversation is the reason there’s a Federal Department of Education is some states (looking at you Deep South) made a mess of things and their performance was screaming for oversight.
That also applies to almost every Federal program the Repugs want to privatize.