Teachers' union, school districts sue Trump admin over Education Department dismantling
Source: USA Today
Published 2:23 p.m. ET March 24, 2025 | Updated 2:52 p.m. ET March 24, 2025
The nation's second largest teachers' union, two other unions representing school employees and a pair of Massachusetts school districts on Monday filed a lawsuit against the Trump administration over its attempt to dismantle the U.S. Department of Education.
The American Federation of Teachers and its Massachusetts chapter joined the Easthampton School District and Somerville Public School Committee in challenging Trump's executive order and mass layoffs of more than 1,300 workers inside the federal agency. The American Federation of State, County and Municipal Employees and the American Association of University Professors also are involved in the litigation.
"Trying to abolish the department as one of the president’s first acts – whether through an executive order, a ‘reduction in force’ or concepts of a plan to shift services elsewhere – is not only illegal, it sends a message that the president doesn’t care about broad based opportunity, doesn’t care about knowledge, and doesn’t care about this country’s future,” Randi Weingarten, the president of the American Federation of Teachers, said of the lawsuit filed in federal court in Boston.
Trump signed the executive order on Thursday attempting to eliminate the Education Department after reducing the agency's workforce by nearly half. A day later, the president said he would be directing other federal agencies are going to take over some of the Education Department's current functions, including special education, Title I and Pell Grants.
Read more: https://www.usatoday.com/story/news/education/2025/03/24/trump-education-department-lawsuits-teachers-union-school/82636301007/
Link to NEA PRESS RELEASE - Coalition Sues Trump Administration For Dismantling Department of Education, Hurting All Students