Members of Congress are joining AFGE and other national teachers unions in calling on the Trump administration to stop its unlawful dismantling of the Education Department.
Over the past 18 months, Education Secretary Linda McMahon has fired or forced out nearly half of the agency’s workforce, slashed billions in federal grants supporting students at all levels, cancelled $12 billion in funding that had already been appropriated by Congress, created a backlog of 25,000 complaints from students experiencing discrimination by gutting the department’s civil rights division, and unlawfully transferred the department’s work to other federal agencies.
“Secretary McMahon is unlawfully trying to eliminate the Department of Education. And in doing so, she’s costing taxpayers untold amounts of money, staff time, expertise, knowledge, and other resources,” Sen. Angela Alsobrooks (D-Md.) said during a press conference outside the U.S. Capitol on Sept. 15.
“She’s followed the pattern that this administration has set of disrespecting and attacking our federal workers, who to be clear are the great patriots of our country. The ones who have shown up. They didn’t care whether the president was a Democrat or Republican. They are there to serve the American people. And like so many others in this administration, that’s who she has chosen to attack.”
Alsobrooks was one of six members of Congress who joined leaders from AFGE, the American Federation of Teachers, and the National Education Association at the press conference to highlight how the administration’s actions have harmed federal employees and the work they do on behalf of students and teachers across the country.
“Secretary Linda McMahon says she’s making our agency more efficient, but her actions have done the opposite,” said AFGE Local 252 President Rachel Gittleman, whose local represents Education Department employees. “She has harmed students, created chaos for families and communities, and wasted tens of millions in taxpayer dollars. And in doing so, she has ignored the will of both Congress and the courts as well as the majority of the public by continuing to decimate the only federal agency focused on helping states and communities educate their students.”
McMahon ultimately fired or forced out about 1,000 employees last year, leading to warnings from the department’s Inspector General and the Government Accountability Office that the department is too thinly staffed to follow federal laws or safeguard billions of taxpayer dollars from fraud, waste, and abuse.
Since then, McMahon has posted hundreds of vacancy announcements seeking to fill the same jobs that were held by the federal employees she fired – and she’s refusing to offer these jobs to those terminated workers.
“One of our fired members has been rejected multiple times from Education Department job postings that are identical to the job that she did while at the department. She was finally hired by a contractor to do the exact same job she did at the department for $15 an hour and without benefits. She’s facing foreclosure on her home,” Gittleman said.
Following the press conference, three former secretaries of Education – Arne Duncan, John King Jr., and Miguel Cardona – joined Gittleman in sending a letter to the department’s Acting Inspector General Mark Priebe requesting a full review of the mass firings.
“The administration’s mantra has always been, ‘Nothing to see here.’ But we know better. We know that behind every termination, every forced retirement or resignation, every dollar slashed, every office or program relocated, every policy decision is a story of a real human who is being harmed right now,” Gittleman said.
In new court filings related to a lawsuit filed against the Education Department by more than 20 states and the District of Columbia challenging the layoffs, the plaintiffs claim that the department is withholding more than 1,000 documents related to how the layoffs were planned and carried out.
AFGE National President Everett Kelley said Congress must intervene to prevent further damage to the department and students.
“Here is what we’re asking Congress to do: pass statutory language that halts and reverses these transfers,” Kelley said. “You can sign an agreement and put out a press release. You cannot sign an agreement that teaches the Department of Labor how to enforce a student’s civil rights. You cannot repost a job and get back 30 years of knowing how the money actually reaches a classroom. That’s expertise that walked out of the door.”
Democrats in the Senate and House have been working on getting language inserted into next year’s budget that would prevent the administration from shutting down the department, and Sen. Chris Van Hollen (D-Md.) has introduced legislation that would require full funding of Title 1 and the Individuals with Disabilities Education Act (IDEA).
But generating movement on the legislative efforts will require leadership changes in Congress, Van Hollen said.
“The federal government needs to make good on its commitments. Right now, we have a president who’s trying to dismantle things. When we have the votes, we need to reverse the damage, and we need to build a stronger public education system in the United States of America,” he said.
The press conference also featured Reps. Robert C. “Bobby” Scott, Suzanne Bonamici, Jahana Hayes, and Mark Takano, as well as NEA Vice President Noel Candelaria and AFT Secretary-Treasurer Fed Ingram.
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