Bonta leads lawsuit challenging the Dept. of Education mass firings

ATTORNEY GENERAL'S OFFICE

California Attorney General Rob Bonta files lawsuit to save the US Department of Education.

California Attorney General Rob Bonta Thursday led a multistate coalition in filing a lawsuit challenging the unlawful mass firing of nearly 50% of all employees at the US Department of Education.

“The Trump Administration’s attempt to gut the Department of Education’s workforce is another step in its end goal of shuttering the department for good,” said Bonta, California's first FIlipino American heading the AG's office.

“In doing so, the Trump Administration ignores the invaluable role the Department of Education plays in ensuring the health, safety, and education of our children — administering programs that assist children from low-income families, providing vocational training, and enforcing anti-discrimination laws, among countless other responsibilities fundamental to our educational system," said Bonta.

The firings is just a step toward's eliminating the entire education department, contends the lawsuit filed by the 21 Attorneys General.

“What’s so troubling here is that the reduction in force is so severe and so extreme that it incapacitates the department from performing statutory functions,” Bonta said during a press conference Thursday morning. “Only Congress can make such drastic changes. Not the agency. Not the president.”

In the lawsuit, the coalition argues that the Trump Administration cannot abolish the Department of Education and cannot disrupt or override — through the mass firings of employees or otherwise — the statutory functions and programs that fall under its purview.

"Dismantling the Department of Education from within would have catastrophic consequences — and like many of the Trump Administration’s actions since taking office, is blatantly illegal. It shouldn’t be too much to ask for a President to follow the law, but for the eighth time in as many weeks, we’ll see him in court.”

On March 11, the Department of Education initiated a reduction in workforce impacting nearly 50% of the Department’s employees, as part of the Trump Administration’s “final mission” to dismantle the Department. Department staff in danger of losing their jobs will be placed on administrative leave beginning Friday, March 21.

When President Trump was inaugurated, the Department’s workforce stood at 4,133 workers. Following the March 11 actions, the Department’s workforce will total roughly 2,183 workers. Included in the reduction in force are nearly 600 employees who accepted voluntary resignation and retirement proposals over the last seven weeks, including 259 employees who participated in the Deferred Resignation Program and 313 employees who accepted the Voluntary Separation Incentive Payment.

In the AGs’ lawsuit, the 21 Attorneys General argue that Trump’s directive to shut down the Department, and the steps taken by the Department and Secretary of Education Linda McMahon, who formerly headed the World Wrestling  to implement that directive, are unlawful and cannot stand.

FYI: A copy of the Attorneys General lawsuit is available here.

The coalition establishes that the Trump Administration cannot undo the many acts of Congress that authorize the Department, dictate its responsibilities, and appropriate funds for it to administer. Its attempt to do so through the mass firings violates the separation of powers and the Executive Branch’s obligation to take care that the law is faithfully executed. Further, as the complaint details, these firings exceed the Department’s authority under the law, are arbitrary and capricious, and contrary to law in violation of the Administrative Procedures Act.

Leading the lawsuit with Bonta are Hawaii Attorney General Anne Lopez, Massachusetts Attorney General Andrea Campbell, and New York Attorney General Letitia James. They are joined by the attorneys general of Arizona, Colorado, Connecticut, Delaware, Illinois, Maine, Maryland, Michigan, Minnesota, Nevada, New Jersey, Oregon, Rhode Island, Washington, Wisconsin, Vermont, and the District of Columbia.

This lawsuit is the seventh filed by the AG coalition challenging Trump's and his administration's controversial policies and attempts to dismantle the federal government claiming the cuts are necessary for greater efficiency and cost savings.

Federal judge William Alsup in San Francisco Thursday agreed with the AG's in an earlier lawsuit against Trump's federal workforce reduction. The judge ordered the federal government to rehire thousands of workers who were let go the departments of Veterans Affairs, Agriculture, Defense, Energy, the Interior and the Treasury to immediately offer job reinstatement to employees terminated on or about Feb. 13 and 14.

That decision will be appealed said the White House Thursday afternoon. Trump's Department of Justice will likely appeal all the way to the US Supreme Court with its  conservative majority.

Republicans have long said they want to get rid of the Department of Education entirely and shift some of it's responsibilities to other federal departments as a way to cut back on bureaucracy and save money.

The elimination of the Department of Education is part of the Project 2025 plan prepared for the Trump administration by conservative think tanks backed by multi-billionaires.

According to Project 2025, shutting down the Department of Education would:

• Eliminate Head Start – which provides early learning, health, nutrition, and family support services for nearly 1 million low-income children and their families every year – all as the country undergoes a critical child care crisis. (p. 482)

• Wipe out universal free school meal programs, including summer meal programs. (p. 303)

• Defund public schools – and instead funnels tax-payer dollars to fund unaccountable private schools. (p. 319)

• Phase out Title I Funding –funding for high-poverty schools – which would cut 180,000 teacher positions, by some estimates. (pp. 325-326)

• Eliminate the rights of children with disabilities to receive Free Appropriate Public Education (FAPE) under IDEA. (p. 326)

"This massive RIF is not supported by any actual reasoning or specific determinations about how to eliminate purported waste in the Department—rather, the RIF is part and parcel of President Trump's and Secretary McMahon's opposition to the Department of Education's entire existence," the lawsuit said.

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