(The Center Square) – Pennsylvania state legislators are reacting to Monday’s U.S. Supreme Court decision that clears the way for the Trump administration to continue on its path to dismantle the Department of Education.
The ruling stayed an injunction that would require the department to reinstate 1,400 workers who were laid off by the administration. Cases against the administration continue to make their way through lower courts.
“Yesterday’s Supreme Court decision is a slap in the face to students, families, educators, and taxpayers across America,” said Sen. Lindsey Williams, D-Pittsburgh.
While the court majority did not issue an explanation of their decision, Justice Sotomayor, who was among the three opposing justices, wrote a dissenting opinion on the matter.
In the text, Sotomayor explains that the Department of Education was instituted by Congress and lays out the Executive obligation to “take care that the laws be faithfully executed” per Article II of the U.S. Constitution.
Secretary of Education Linda McMahon has stated her intent to fulfill President Trump’s directive to “put yourself out of a job” by gutting the department, which helps to fund schools throughout the country while enforcing civil rights codes and determining educational standards.
“When the Executive publicly announces its intent to break the law, and then executes on that promise, it is the Judiciary’s duty to check that lawlessness, not expedite it,” wrote Sotomayor. “Rather than maintain the status quo, however, this Court now intervenes, lifting the injunction and permitting the Government to proceed with dismantling the Department.”
“That decision is indefensible,” the justice continued. “It hands the Executive the power to repeal statutes by firing all those necessary to carry them out. The majority is either willfully blind to the implications of its ruling or naive, but either way the threat to our Constitution’s separation of powers is grave.”
McMahon saw it differently.
“Today, the Supreme Court again confirmed the obvious: the President of the United States, as the head of the Executive Branch, has the ultimate authority to make decisions about staffing levels, administrative organization, and day-to-day operations of federal agencies,” McMahon said in a press release. “While today’s ruling is a significant win for students and families, it is a shame that the highest court in the land had to step in to allow President Trump to advance the reforms Americans elected him to deliver using the authorities granted to him by the U.S. Constitution.”
Williams wrote that while this decision was being made, states were waiting on frozen funds for summer and after-school programming. Gov. Josh Shapiro has joined 23 states in a lawsuit to unfreeze that funding.
The state is seeking its $230 million share of seven billion dollars frozen by the Department of Education. The money is allocated toward education for migrant children, teacher training, English language acquisition, adult education, and 21st Century Community Learning Centers.
“Every Pennsylvania child deserves the freedom to chart their own course and the opportunity to succeed,” Shapiro said. “Once again, the Trump Administration is trying to take away dollars that were committed to Pennsylvania — this time from our schools.”
Williams said the freeze will most impact working families.
“Chaos is not good governance. It is not efficiency,” said Williams. “I will continue to call out billionaires and corporations whose goal is to make money off the backs of our children while destroying public education.”
