According to data from the Department, at least 240 OCR employees were dismissed on Tuesday, most lawyers investigate the complaints of parents and families who believe that a school discriminated against their child. The number of layoffs is probably higher, because what 240 does not include non -unionized employees. Last September, 568 people worked in the OCR, according to the Feddscope Federal labor database.
An organizational table of the revised department obtained by NPR shows that more than half of the 12 OCR fields will also be closed – in New York, Boston, Philadelphia, Chicago, Cleveland, San Francisco and Dallas.
Catherine Lhamon, who headed the Civil Rights Office during Obama and Biden administrations, says that these cuts are “an absolute walk of our bipartite long -standing commitments to civil rights and our conviction that each of our children is a precious learner.”
However, the Trump administration clearly plans to use this office: the day before the announcement of dismissals, OCR Letters sent At 60 colleges and universities, threatening to retain federal funding if they do not protect Jewish students on their campuses.
“American colleges and universities benefit from huge public investments funded by American taxpayers,” said education secretary Linda McMahon in a statement. “This support is a privilege and it depends on scrupulous membership in anti -discriminatory federal laws.”
However, the office has at least 40% less staff members to apply these laws.
“I am open to the idea that the loss of half of the OCR lawyers is a good decision,” said Rick Hess of the American Enterprise Institute (AEI), “but be open to that, I believe it.”
Hess says that the personnel cuts this large should be explained, with total transparency, by the administration that cuts. In this case, this has not yet happened.
It is the work of the Trump administration, Hess says: “To be transparent on what is happening, to explain how it will work, and ideally for having done it before the cuts are done rather than after the cuts.”
Money will always go to the most vulnerable students, with less railings
The Ministry of Education administers two major flows of financing several decades in schools to help educate the most vulnerable students in the country: those who live in poverty (title 1) and disabled children (the law on the education of disabled people, or the idea). The two financing flows were created by the congress and are protected by law.
While Tuesday’s layoffs do not directly affect these federal dollars, four sources with direct knowledge of the interior functioning of the Ministry’s General Council Office have declared to NPR that the Trump administration dismissed all responsible lawyers to help states and school districts to understand how they can and cannot use their federal kindergarten money in the 12th year, and which raised red flags when a state or A district seems to be in violation of these financing laws.
These layoffs always allow states to continue to receive vital federal funds, including money for homeless students and rural schools, but they abolish the ability of the United States government to offer legal advice or railings – to ensure that money is used to help children help.
“This will have very negative effects on communities across the country which does not really understand that their child (special education) or the support they receive for their child are directly linked to the U.S. Department of Education, ”explains Patrice Willoughby, head of policies and legislative affairs at NAACP.
Wednesday, addressing journalists, President Trump clearly said that the withdrawal of federal surveillance is designed as a sign of confidence in the ability of states to manage their own business.
“We have a dream, and you know what is the dream that we are going to move the Ministry of Education – we will move education in the United States, so that states, instead of bureaucrats working in Washington, so that states can direct education.”
Another blow to education in education
At the beginning of February, the Elon Musk Government Ministry of Government (DOGE) Make deep cuts To the research division of the Department of Education, the Institute of Education Sciences (IES).
DOGE said it had reduced dozens of research contracts worth around $ 900 million. These cuts included large -scale efforts to study everything, better ways to teach literacy in the first years to help disabled students to make the sometimes difficult transition of high school in the world of work.
“It is a decimation”, a source to the knowledge of the internal functioning of the ies said NPR“The destruction of knowing what works for children”.
In addition to these research cuts on Tuesday, the Department of Education dismissed more than 100 IES employees, including numerous research analysts specializing in kindergarten studies in the 12th year and teaching adults and career.
Last September, 186 people worked at the IES, according to Feddscope.
There will be fewer resources for student loans and college financial assistance
The Office of Federal Student AID (FSA), which administers the tentacular federal student loans portfolio, was particularly affected in Tuesday cuts, losing more than 320 unionized employees.
It is in addition to other major personnel losses, which were discussed at an internal FSA meeting held on Wednesday morning, sources told NPR.
During this meeting, the Top Education Department and FSA officials said that they will lose more than 450 employees because of this next force reduction – and a 727 combined when you include probation staff who have been dismissed as well as veterans workers who have agreed to retire or go voluntarily.
According to FeddscopeFSA had 1,440 employees last September. This means that the FSA is also essentially cut in half.
Familiar sources with the internal functioning of the FSA, which would not speak publicly for fear of reprisals from the Trump administration, said that these layoffs, coupled with a high number of veteran staff who have chosen to leave, have been devastating.
“We have lost hundreds of years of institutional knowledge,” an FSA employee told NPR.
According to several FSA sources, have also lost in the layoffs that have helped to supervise companies that manage the federal portfolio of student loans, as well as a large group of IT specialists who help maintain the online presence of the FSA, including compliance with cybersecurity.
Sources indicate at NPR that the office could soon have trouble fulfilling basic functions even – at a time when enormous changes will have to be made in the coming months while the Congress and the courts set up on the future reimbursement focused on income.
“The borrowers will call call centers,” said a source at NPR, “and they will have even less information than what is available now. “”
Millions of students do not need to recall what is going on when the FSA does not do. Many undoubtedly remember the Biden administration disorder unroll Free demand for federal assistance to students (FAFSA) and hope that these staff cuts do not mean a return to Chaos Fafsa.
Are these mass layoffs legal?
This question has no clear answer, according to Kenneth Wong, professor of education policy at Brown University. Wong says Trump “pushes the border of executive power” by making deep cuts to the staff working on programs created by the congress.
Some states already fight the legality of the cuts. Thursday, the Prosecutor General of New York, Letitia James, led a group of 20 other state prosecutors Pursuing to stop The Trump administration to dismantle the Department of Education.
“The dismissal of half of the workforce of the Ministry of Education will harm the students of New York and the Nation,” said James in a statement, “in particular low-income students and the disabled people who rely on federal funding. This scandalous effort to leave the students behind and deprive them of a quality education is reckless and illegal. »»
Executive power has the power to manage federal staff; It is not in doubt. The question of the moment is: when is the management of the personnel undermined or even endangers a program protected by law?
For example, the mandate of the civil rights office to apply federal laws on civil rights is protected by law. The elimination of the office would probably be considered a violation of the federal law, but the reduction of office staff in two?
In addition, Rick Hess d’Aei stresses that there are basic public service policies for hiring and dismissal of staff.
“Are these layoffs made in a coherent manner with what Congress authorized?” For me, as a guy in education, it is not immediately clear,“” he said.
The White House, says Wong, essentially asks the congress: “” Do you agree with us in the executive power, that it is OK for us? “So I think the ball is now in the hands of the congress.”
While some Republicans in Congress having expressed their concern On changes in the Department of Education, in particular around the safeguarding of services for disabled children, it is not clear that the party, as a whole, will have an interest in repelling, even if the reduction in the workforce continues.
Without an intervention by the congress, known as Wong, the fight to find out if these massive cuts went too far take place in the courts.
