Washington state joins lawsuit against Trump's mass Department of Education cuts

Washington state has joined a coalition of 20 other states in a lawsuit seeking to stop President Donald Trump’s efforts to dismantle the U.S. Department of Education.

The action comes days after the department announced it would slash roughly half of its workforce — part of what it called its “final mission” as the Trump administration looks to fulfill campaign promises to eliminate the department entirely.

In a news release Thursday, Washington State Attorney General Nick Brown called the Trump administration's move to fire more than 1,300 people illegal and said it would “destroy a federal agency that ensures tens of millions of students receive a quality education and critical resources.”

“Knowledge is power, and these cuts are intended to take invaluable learning opportunities away from millions of students,” Brown said. “As many of Trump’s illegal cuts do, these impacts will fall hardest on young people and families that can least afford it.”

RELATED: U.S. Education Department says it is cutting nearly half of all staff

Established as a cabinet-level agency in 1979, the Department of Education operates the standardized test known as the “nation’s report card,” and collects data on things like enrollment, where schools spend money, and crime in schools.

RELATED: Nation’s report card: WA student achievement gaps widen, Covid struggles continue

The department also enforces civil rights laws that prohibit discrimination in federally-funded schools. Beyond that enforcement role, the agency does not set curriculum or policies in individual schools or districts.

In addition, the department heads the $1.6 trillion federal student loan program and other grant programs for K-12 schools. The two largest ones are Title I, which provides supplemental funding to schools serving a high proportion of low-income students, and the Individuals with Disabilities Education Act (IDEA), which helps schools cover the costs of educating students who receive special education services.

RELATED: What Trump's second term could mean for education in Washington state

In Tuesday’s mass layoff announcement, the department said it would “continue to deliver on all statutory programs that fall under the agency’s purview, including formula funding, student loans, Pell Grants, funding for special needs students, and competitive grantmaking.”

But Brown said Thursday that the intended layoffs will make the department “unable to perform essential functions,” and that will hurt students with disabilities and low-income students, who are “some of the primary beneficiaries of these services and funding.”

Filed in Massachusetts Thursday morning, the lawsuit argues the firings are “not supported by any actual reasoning or scientific determinations about how to eliminate purported waste in the Department,” and are instead “part and parcel of President Trump’s and Secretary McMahon’s opposition to the Department of Education’s entire existence.”

The lawsuit seeks a court order to block the firings and says the “executive branch does not have the legal authority to unilaterally incapacitate or dismantle the Department of Education without an act of Congress.”

State Superintendent Chris Reykdal also expressed doubts on Thursday that the department could continue to fulfill all of its responsibilities after this week’s mass reduction in force.

Reykdal said his office has already noticed cuts in the department — and he’s worried “exceedingly painful” response times are coming.

“The personnel cuts will be felt the first time we pick up a phone and call there and no one answers, or they say we’ve got large call volumes, or we’ll get back to you,” Reykdal said. “This stuff isn’t always urgent, but sometimes it is.”

More than that, though, Reykdal is concerned about what the cuts might mean for civil rights enforcement in public schools.

“When they get sideways with federal civil rights laws, that is the backstop. That’s the group that can come in and get corrective action,” he said. “So there’s an immediate risk to civil rights if that group is deteriorated too much.”

The department is also an important enforcement agency, Reykdal said, if a school is not providing adequate special education services to students with disabilities, as mandated by federal law.

“It’s the hammer when necessary,” he said.

EDITOR'S NOTE: This story was updated on March 13 to include statements and reaction from Washington Attorney General Nick Brown and Superintendent Chris Reykdal.