What we know now about Trump’s executive order on Education Department
Now that President Trump has signed an executive order to dismantle the Education Department, what happens next? Here is what we know now.
- The lawsuit argues that dismantling the Department of Education would jeopardize critical funding and support for public schools.
(This story has been updated with additional information.)
WORCESTER ― The Worcester Public Schools have joined several other school districts in the state in a lawsuit against the Trump administration over its plans to dismantle the U.S. Department of Education.
The district announced Wednesday that it has joined a lawsuit filed by the group Democracy Forward, which originally filed a suit in U.S. District Court March 24, seeking to challenge an executive order that President Donald Trump signed March 20 seeking to dismantle the Department of Education. The Worcester Public Schools are not a plaintiff in the suit but rather have joined as a declarant, which operates as a witness for the plaintiffs.
The Somerville and Easthampton Public Schools are the plaintiffs, along with other education groups including the American Federation of Teachers Massachusetts; the American Federation of State, County and Municipal Employees; the American Association of University Professors; and the Service Employees International Union.
“Worcester is taking a stand. Dismantling the Department of Education is not only unjust but illegal,” Mayor Joseph M. Petty stated in a press release Wednesday. “In the City of Worcester, we will always support our scholars, staff, families and residents of all backgrounds. We hope that by putting pressure on the federal government, we can collectively stop the chaos and keep children at the forefront.”
Democracy Forward is a legal group that was founded in 2016 and states on its website that it has challenged Trump in court on more than 100 occasions.
Petty and Worcester Superintendent Rachel Monárrez released a YouTube video Wednesday morning where they give a joint statement regarding joining the legal action.
“Simply put, dismantling the DOE directly threatens the critical services we provide to our 25,000 students, along with millions of dollars in funding,” Monárrez said in the video.
The Department of Education did not immediately respond to requests for comment by the Telegram & Gazette.
The Department of Education was created by President Jimmy Carter in 1979. The department has a wide range of responsibilities including controlling billions of dollars in federal grants and administrating the federal student loan program.
Trump repeatedly stated on the campaign trail that one of his goals in office would be to eliminate the department and grant more authority to individual states, which have long been popular ideas among conservatives. While the department can only be legally abolished by an act of Congress, Trump’s executive order seeks to deemphasize it as much as possible by moving functions of the department to other areas of government.
Roughly half of the Department of Education’s staff has been laid off since Trump took office, shrinking the workforce from 4,133 to 2,183 employees.
The Worcester Public Schools receive about $53 million in federal funding each year, around 9% of the district’s annual budget. That funding is used for a diverse set of programs including Head Start, which offers preschool education to hundreds of lower-income students in the city each year.
“Without the Department of Education, technical and financial support for these programs is at risk,” Petty said in the video.
“These are not luxuries, these are necessities,” Monárrez added. “Worcester Public Schools will remain committed to our values, regardless of what happens at the federal level.”
The Worcester Public Schools have already been impacted by some cuts made by the Trump administration, with $180,000 in annual funding for subsidized school lunches axed in cuts to the Department of Agriculture.
In a press conference Wednesday afternoon, Monárrez said the long-term uncertainty over various forms of federal funding is disheartening. Monárrez used an example of $8 million in federal funding that supports special education students on individual education plans, and noted that the school district is obligated to provide those services regardless of whether there is federal funding coming or not.
“Even if that funding goes away, those students are still going to be coming to school next year, and we are legally obligated to pay for their services,” Monárrez said. “What is disheartening to me is that we are not talking about a business, where we are making a little less of a profit – we are talking about our children’s lives and their futures.”
The School Committee approved the decision to join the lawsuit in a vote during executive session. The vote was 6-2. Voting in favor of being a declarant were Petty, At-Large members Sue Mailman and Maureen Binienda, District A Rep. Molly McCullough, District D Rep. Alex Guardiola and District F Rep. Jermaine Johnson.
Binienda is interim superintendent of schools in Easthampton, one of the plaintiffs in the suit.
District C Rep. Dianna Biancheria and District E Rep. Kathleen Roy voted against being a declarant.
District B Rep. Vanessa Alvarez was absent.