WASHINGTON − The Trump administration on June 6 asked the Supreme Court to let it dismantle the Education Department and fire hundreds of its workers.
President Donald Trump is trying to fulfil his campaign promise to end the Education Department and move school policy to the states.
In an emergency appeal, the administration said the court should lift a judge’s order blocking Trump from carrying out those moves while they’re being challenged by Democratic-led states, school districts and teachers’ unions.
“The Constitution vests the Executive Branch, not district courts, with the authority to make judgments about how many employees are needed to carry out an agency’s statutory functions, and whom they should be,” Solicitor General John Sauer told the Supreme Court.
The workers were placed administrative leave on March 21 and were to stop receiving salaries on June 9.
Lower courts blocked mass layoffs at Education Department
But U.S. District Judge Myong Joun said the White House’s decision to fire more than 1,300 workers has prevented the federal government from effectively implementing legally required programs and services. Such changes can’t be made without the approval of Congress, which created the department in 1979, Joun ruled.
The Boston-based 1st U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals backed that decision. The court said the administration provided no evidence to counter Joun’s “record-based findings about the disabling impact” of the mass firings and the transfer of some functions to other agencies.
“What is at stake in this case, the District Court found, was whether a nearly half-century-old cabinet department would be permitted to carry out its statutorily assigned functions or prevented from doing so by a mass termination of employees aimed at implementing the effective closure of that department,” Judge David Barron wrote for the panel of three circuit judges.
Trump signed executive order aimed at closing the Education Department
An executive order Trump signed in March directed Education Secretary Linda McMahon to “facilitate the closure of the Department of Education.”
Republicans have long accused the federal government of holding too much power over local and state education policy, even though the federal government has no control over school curriculum.
McMahon announced roughly half the agency’s workforce would be eliminated through a combination of mass layoffs and voluntary buyouts. That would have reduced the staff from 4,133 workers when Trump began his second term in January to 2,183 workers.
The administration also wants the Small Business Administration to take over student loans and move special education services to the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services.
More: Trump can’t erase the Education Department with an executive order. Here’s why.
Judge ordered Education Department to rehire workers
Joun’s May 22 order blocked the administration from transferring those functions and required the department to reinstate fired workers.
Lawyers for the states, school districts and teachers’ unions challenging Trump’s executive order said in a June 5 filing that none of the fired workers have returned to their jobs and the administration hasn’t shared any plans to bring them back.
The appeals court said Trump doesn’t have to have as many Education Department employees as the previous administration but can’t cut so many that the agency can’t function as Congress intended.
The Justice Department told the Supreme Court that the harms to the government from having to rehire the workers as the litigation continues are greater than any harms the challengers said they’ll suffer from diminished department services.
The administration urged the Supreme Court to intervene quickly because of a June 9 district court hearing to determine if the Education Department is complying with Joun’s order.
The Supreme Court gave the states, school districts and teachers’ unions until June 13 to respond to the administration’s appeal.
More: What will happen at my school if Trump closes the Department of Education?
Education Department functions are required by law
The Education Department is legally required to ensure that students and teachers with disabilities are treated fairly and that low-income schools get the resources they need to keep pace with more affluent ones. The agency also issues regulations for colleges to hold them accountable for preparing graduates for well-paying jobs.
And it functions like a giant bank, doling out billions of dollars to help people pay for college.
Even if the Education Department were reorganized, which would take an act of Congress, its obligations under Title IV of the Higher Education Act of 1965 would have to continue elsewhere. The law passed during the Johnson administration requires the government to administer student loan programs, issue grants and ensure that schools receiving federal money don’t discriminate against students.
Contributing: Zachary Schermele
This article originally appeared on USA TODAY: Trump asks Supreme Court to let him gut Education Department
