Trump’s Dismantling of Education Department Blocked In Court

Topline

The Trump administration’s dismantling of the Department of Education was halted in court Thursday, as a federal judge blocked the government’s efforts to move its operations to other agencies and ordered the agency to rehire fired staff, ruling the Trump administration’s attempts to rehabilitate the agency were unlawful and causing widespread disruption.

The headquarters of the Department of Education on March 12 in Washington, DC.

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Key Facts

Judge Myong J. Joun granted an injunction against the Trump administration, which blocks the Trump administration’s mass firing of approximately 50% of the Department of Education’s workforce and orders the government to rehire staff while the litigation moves forward

It also blocks Trump’s directive to move the federal student loan portfolio and special education programs out of the Department of Education and to the Small Business Administration and Department of Health and Human Services, respectively.

Democratic-led states, school districts and teachers unions sued the Trump administration in federal court over its moves at the Department of Education, which are part of a broader effort by the Trump administration to dismantle the agency.

While the Trump administration claims its staff terminations were necessary for “efficiency,” Joun ruled there’s “no evidence” the mass firings have made things more efficient—instead noting, “the record is replete with evidence of the opposite”—and suggested the reductions in staff will “likely cripple” the Education Department, arguing Trump is using the staff reductions to “to effectively dismantle the Department without an authorizing statute.”

The Trump administration does not have the authority to get rid of the Education Department without Congress’ approval, Joun ruled, arguing Trump’s order to get rid of the department goes “directly against” Congress’ goals in creating the agency, and the executive branch does not have any “power to dismantle Congressionally created departments and programs through mass terminations.”

The Trump administration and Education Department have not yet responded to requests for comment, while plaintiffs who brought the case cheered Joun’s ruling, with American Federation of Teachers president Randi Weingarten calling it “a first step to reverse this war on knowledge and the undermining of broad-based opportunity,” and Democracy Forward CEO Skye Perryman saying the ruling means the government’s “disastrous mass firings of career civil servants are blocked while this wildly disruptive and unlawful agency action is litigated.”

Crucial Quote

“A department without enough employees to perform statutorily mandated functions is not a department at all,” Joun wrote. “This court cannot be asked to cover its eyes while the Department’s employees are continuously fired and units are transferred out until the Department becomes a shell of itself.”

What To Watch For

Joun’s ruling will only remain in effect temporarily while the case remains pending, and the Trump administration is likely to ask an appeals court to strike it down and allow the agency’s mass firings again. Either Joun or another court could still ultimately rule that the firings should be halted permanently, or allow the Trump administration to resume its dismantling of the agency.

What Impacts Do The Department Of Education’s Mass Firings Have?

Evidence presented in the lawsuit suggests the significant cuts to the Education Department’s staff have severely impacted the agency’s ability to do its work. Citing testimony and other evidence presented in the case, Joun noted in his ruling that the staff reductions have “effectively gutted” some of the department’s “key components” and left “the agency incapable of performing many of its core, statutorily mandated functions.” The agency fired most of its attorneys who advise it on key issues, much of the staff working on federal student aid, its entire communications staff, a grantee relations team, almost the entire staff at the Institute of Education Sciences and the agency’s entire Office of International and Foreign Language Education, among others, according to the litigation. Some of the potential impacts the staff reductions have had on the groups that brought the lawsuit include federal funds not getting properly disbursed, student complaints about discrimination or assault getting ignored, a reduction in federal grant money—which then could make colleges more expensive for students—disruptions to student aid applications and a lack of oversight over how loans are being administered. School districts also cited uncertainty over their budgets, since they won’t know how much they’ll get in federal funding, and noted that important services could be impacted if their federal funding is cut or if money gets delayed due to staff shortages.

Key Background

Trump has made dismantling the Education Department a major part of his agenda. The Department of Education was established by Congress in 1979, but conservatives have more recently suggested they’d rather leave education up to the states, and abolishing the agency was among the proposals put forth in right-wing policy agenda Project 2025. Trump signed an executive order in March aimed at closing the Department of Education, claiming doing so “would provide children and their families the opportunity to escape a system that is failing them” and directing Education Secretary Linda McMahon to “take all necessary steps to facilitate” the agency’s closure and “return authority over education to the States and local communities.” The Trump administration has not been able to get rid of the agency entirely, however, given that doing so would be up to Congress, and has instead focused on taking steps like the mass firings and moving some of the its functions to other agencies. The cuts to the agency’s workforce are part of a broader slew of mass firings that have taken place across the executive branch since Trump’s inauguration—which have been carried out with the help of billionaire Elon Musk and his Department of Government Efficiency—and Joun is the latest federal judge to rule against those terminations while litigation moves forward.