The Supreme Court gave the Trump administration the green light to proceed with its downsizing of the U.S. Education Department while litigation on the matter continues in the lower courts. The Supreme Court’s emergency order set aside, at least temporarily, a Biden-appointed federal district court judge’s ruling that had reinstated terminated employees at the department.
The Trump administration has announced the termination of more than 1,300 Education Department workers out of a total of about 4,400, as part of a reduction in force to promote maximum efficiency. After also taking into account some probationary workers who have been let go and employees who have accepted the administration’s offer to resign, about one half the size of the Education Department’s workforce prior to President Trump’s second term still remain.
Judge Myong J. Joun of the U.S. District Court for the District of Massachusetts, who had issued the reinstatement order, based his decision on the premise that only Congress can legally shut down or eliminate a congressionally-created department, not the executive branch unilaterally. But that is not what happened here.
Downsizing, which still leaves about half of the total number of pre-Trump 2.0 employees in place, is hardly tantamount to shutting down the Education Department altogether. Whether the Trump administration intends in the future, and is authorized, to totally abolish the Education Department and leave its discretionary functions to the states, while still performing its statutorily mandated functions elsewhere in the executive branch, is not relevant to this downsizing case.
The Education Department’s net outlays in fiscal year 2024 totaled $267.9 billion, nearly four percent of total outlays by the federal government. Since 1980, when the Department of Education was established, this department’s spending has increased 371.6% in comparison to an increase of 193.7% in overall federal spending during the same period.
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Author: Ruth King
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