By AFT
Photos: YouTube Screenshots
MASSACHUSETTS – Today, a coalition including educators, school districts, and unions filed a legal action against the Trump administration to stop the dismantling of the Department of Education and mass firings that will decimate the crucial services the Department provides to every American. The Department of Education serves students, teachers, parents, and communities across the country. This lawsuit is the first filed since President Trump’s Executive Order, attempting to shutter the Department.
The complaint was filed by Democracy Forward in the U.S. District Court for the District of Massachusetts on behalf of Easthampton School District, Somerville Public School Committee, American Federation of Teachers (AFT) – Massachusetts, AFT, AFSCME Council 93, American Association of University Professors and Service Employees International Union (SEIU).
“Today, we defend all people who depend on the Department of Education to ensure public schools are safe, accessible and welcoming, and that education is available to all people in this nation, not just a few,” said Skye Perryman, President and CEO of Democracy Forward. “This country needs to be focused on how to improve education and opportunities for all and how to support those who both give and receive education with safe, effective, accessible, and quality schools and opportunities. Yet, instead of doing that, Donald Trump is taking a wrecking ball to our nation’s best values and our chance at a better future. We are honored to represent students, educators, schools, and communities across the nation in court to stop this abuse of power.”
From distributing funds to help schools work with students with disabilities, to providing support and assistance to parents and families, protecting students’ civil rights, and making sure higher education is affordable for deserving students, civil servants at the Department of Education are essential to the success of students. Mass firings of these hardworking people planned by the Trump administration will harm students and schools.
“Somerville Public Schools is deeply committed to ensuring that every student has access to a high-quality education in a safe and inclusive environment. From protecting students’ rights to expanding college access and ensuring support for students with disabilities, the Department of Education is a cornerstone of equitable public education. Dismantling it would cause real harm — not only to our students and schools, but to communities across the country. That’s why we are joining this case. It is the right decision for Somerville, for Massachusetts, and for the future of public education nationwide,” said Ilana Krepchin, Chair of the Somerville School Committee.
“Protecting access to public education is an important component of ensuring all children have the opportunity to succeed – a value most Americans hold dear and one that is crucial to our democracy. For nearly 50 years, the federal government has helped us ensure equal access, especially for those who have had access restricted throughout history – including low income students in rural and urban areas, students with disabilities, and students learning English,” said American Federation of Teachers Massachusetts President Jessica Tang. “Dismantling the federal government’s role – whether it’s by an illegal executive order or widespread firings to bring critical services and support to a halt – will cause the most harm to students with the greatest needs, greatly diminishing our ability to provide all children with a free and equal education. At the end of the day, the White House is not just illegally dismantling a department – they’re dismantling the futures of millions of children and working families across the country.
“The Department of Education, and the laws it is supposed to execute, has one major purpose: to fill opportunity gaps to help every child in America succeed,” said AFT President Randi Weingarten. “That’s what the ‘equal access’ provided for in the statute means. And over the last five decades, Congress has fulfilled this mission to help poor kids, kids with disabilities, first generation college kids, kids who want to work in a trade, and 45 million Americans with student debt. Now, wielding a sledgehammer, this president is destroying that promise for this and future generations. No one likes bureaucracy, and everyone’s in favor of more efficiency, so let’s find ways to accomplish that. In fact, the AFT was opposed to shifting education from Health, Education, and Welfare, because it created an additional layer. But don’t use a ‘war on woke’ to hand tax cuts to Elon Musk and other billionaires and defund public schools by sending block grants to the states for private school vouchers.
“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,” Weingarten continued. “That is why the president is losing this battle in the court of public opinion. It’s why states like Massachusetts, with the highest NAEP scores, want to keep the department. And today, it’s why we’re going to a court of law to try to stop this callousness and cruelty in its tracks.”
“The Executive Order abolishing the Department of Education is not only illegal, but — as is to be expected from this administration — just plain cruel,” said AFSCME Council 93 Executive Director Mark Bernard. “Thousands of families across Massachusetts rely on the vital services and protections under the IDEA Act to provide educational support for our most vulnerable children. As the home of the first free public school in America, Massachusetts has long been a leader in public education allowing for accessible, equitable, and appropriate education for all students. Thousands of dedicated AFSCME Council 93 members across Massachusetts work tirelessly to support our public-school children in safe, welcoming, and caring school communities.”
“The department has played a crucial role in the pathway to higher education for millions of Americans by providing and administering student loans, grants, and work-study programs,” said Todd Wolfson, President of the American Association of University Professors. “Without it, access to education for working class Americans will decrease. Funding for college education will be stripped away, programs for students with disabilities and students living in poverty will be eviscerated, and enforcement of civil rights laws against race- or sex-based discrimination in higher education will disappear.”
“Working people are not going to stand idly by while this administration destroys public education and other services we all rely on—just to give tax breaks to corporations and the ultra-wealthy,” said SEIU President April Verrett. “Education workers—from food service workers, janitors, and bus drivers to higher education workers, teachers, special education support staff, and administrators—stand united in this moment to protect the interests of the students and communities they serve.
The dismantling of the Department has begun via mass layoffs of at least half of the entire Department. Prior to January 20, 2025, the Department employed 4,133 employees. After the Trump administration’s recent actions, just 2,183 will remain.
In addition to the layoffs, the President’s Executive Order and other administration statements have described the intent to close the Department and move Department programs and offices, such as the Office for Special Education Programs and Federal Student Aid, to different federal agencies with no relevant expertise or necessary resources.
In addition to the harm the mass firings will cause, the case filed today raises important constitutional issues. For the past 46 years, Congress has consistently appropriated funds for the Department to provide services to students, parents, schools, states, colleges, and more, and has repeatedly passed laws requiring the Department to perform a host of functions.
For more information, please visit democracyforward.org.
The AFT represents 1.8 million pre-K through 12th-grade teachers; paraprofessionals and other school-related personnel; higher education faculty and professional staff; federal, state and local government employees; nurses and healthcare workers; and early childhood educators.
