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The Supreme Court this week cleared the way for the Trump Administration to dismantle the federal Department of Education by firing more than 1,000 workers, The New York Times reported.
The justices blocked a lower court order issued in May that required the Department of Education to reinstate nearly 1,400 employees and prohibited the government from moving student loans and special needs programs to other agencies.
The Supreme Court’s order was unsigned and gave no reasoning. Justice Sonia Sotomayor wrote a dissent, joined by the two other liberal justices. The decision, she wrote, would have severe consequences for students, delaying and denying educational opportunities and putting them at greater risk of discrimination, sexual assault and other civil rights violations.
The order is technically temporary while the lower courts consider the legality of Trump’s move, the Times wrote.
Winding down the agency is also likely to solidify the shift from formula to block grants.
President Trump’s proposed budget replaces 18 federal programs that collectively distribute $6.5 billion to schools with a $2 billion block grant; the plan maintains the biggest program, Title I, at $18.4 billion for schools for low-income students. Among the 18 programs are those supporting homeless students, rural schools, migrant education and afterschool programs. State leaders would ultimately decide how to spend their share of the money.
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— Jennifer Palmer
Recommended Reading
- The state agency that oversees Oklahoma charter schools has voted to hire an auditor to look more deeply into recent financial issues revealed by Epic Charter Schools, which twice within the past school year has laid off hundreds of employees. [The Oklahoman]
- The U.S. Department of Education has emerged as central in the struggle over control of the power of the purse in the nation’s capital. [Oklahoma Voice]
- Cuts to taxes and Medicaid spending got most of the attention, but the massive spending law signed last week made huge changes to education, too: there will be billions less for student loans and billions of new dollars for private school vouchers. [The Washington Post]
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