Twenty states and Washington, D.C. filed a lawsuit Thursday against the Trump administration over its cut of over 1,315 Department of Education employees.
California, New York and several other states joined the lawsuit against the department, President Donald Trump and Secretary of Education Linda McMahon over the decision to reduce department staff by nearly 50% on Tuesday. The lawsuit says the states will suffer “immense damage” due to the cuts.
“The Department of Education is essential. Plaintiff States rely on the Department for an extraordinary array of programs,” the lawsuit reads. “This massive [reduction in force] RIF is not supported by any actual reasoning or specific determinations about how to eliminate purported waste in the Department — rather, the RIF is part and parcel of President Trump’s and Secretary McMahon’s opposition to the Department of Education’s entire existence.”
A senior department official on Tuesday told the Daily Caller News Foundation that the cuts will have no impact on the department’s ability to deliver its essential services, including providing student aid and resources to students with disabilities.
In the Tuesday announcement, McMahon described the move as only the first step towards diminishing the department entirely, an idea that the president has floated since before his November election victory. Trump has expressed the need for major education reform in light of recent data showing about 40% of fourth grade students and one-third of eighth graders failed to reach the National Assessment of Educational Progress’s reading assessment benchmark in 2024.
Efforts to abolish the department are also fueled by the increasingly biased programs and initiatives it has worked to entrench in schools. The Department of Education under the Biden administration was used to push radical ideology, with millions of taxpayer funds being poured into topics such as “LGBTQ inclusion” and “anti-racism and anti-oppression” into schools.
Trump has already made efforts to dismantle divisive diversity, equity and inclusion (DEI) initiatives within the department and other federal agencies, wiping hundreds of documents outlining DEI practices from the department’s website, dissolving several related teams and placing staff members on administrative leave and halting DEI trainings.
“President Trump was elected with a mandate from the American public to return education authority to the states,” Madi Biedermann, Deputy Assistant Secretary for Communications at the Department of Education, told the Daily Caller News Foundation. “The Department of Education’s reduction in force (RIF) was implemented carefully and in compliance with all applicable regulations and laws.”
“They are strategic, internal-facing cuts that will not directly impact students and families,” Biedermann continued. “No employees working on the FAFSA, student loan servicing, and Elementary and Secondary Education Act (ESEA) Title funds – including formula and discretionary grants programs – were impacted. No employees in the Office of Special Education Programs or the Rehabilitation Services Administration who serve children with disabilities were impacted. The Office for Civil Rights will continue to investigate complaints and vigorously enforce federal civil rights laws. The RIF is being undertaken in accordance with Title 5, Code of Federal Regulations (CFR), Part 351 and the most recent collective bargaining agreement (CBA) for covered Department employees which went into effect on January 17, 2025.”
Editor’s note: This story has been updated to include a statement from the Department of Education, provided to the DCNF.
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