Democratic Sen. Elizabeth Warren is rallying congressional leaders to investigate the Trump Administration’s efforts to dismantle the Department of Education.
In a letter issued to acting Department of Education inspector general René Rocque on Thursday, Warren, alongside Senate Democratic Leader Chuck Schumer and nine other Democratic senators, argues that Education Secretary Linda McMahon and the Trump administration are illegally attempting to close the agency.
“We have serious concerns that, in addition to being illegal, the President’s actions to shutter the Department and transfer its functions to agencies with no expertise in education policy will seriously inhibit ‘the effective and uninterrupted delivery of services, programs and benefits on which Americans rely,'” the lawmakers wrote.
The request for investigation orders the inspector general to uncover whether attempts to eliminate the Education Department will undermine its ability to “promote student achievement… by fostering educational excellence and ensuring equal access” for students, according to the letter.
They also ask for an evaluation of how these efforts will hinder the government’s ability to support state and local education systems and whether they’ll have adequate funding support without federal oversight.
“Given the adverse impact that the Trump Administration’s actions may have on the Education Department’s ability to administer and improve education programs around the country, an evaluation by your office would be consistent with your goal to ‘drive continuous improvement in Federal education programs,” the lawmakers concluded.
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The letter comes just days after the Trump Administration was met with two separate lawsuits from K12 and higher education coalitions hoping to “derail” Trump’s plans to close the Education Department, District Administration’s Matt Zalaznick wrote.
The lawsuits—one filed by two Massachusetts school districts and the other by the National Association for the Advancement of Colored People and the National Education Association—claim that Trump’s executive order oversteps his presidential authority and that only a vote by Congress can shut down the agency.
However, as predicted by Thomas B. Fordham Institute’s Senior Research Fellow Dale Chu, Trump is working around this by “neutering” the agency instead. Trump relies on McMahon to “put herself out of a job” by taking all the necessary steps to dismantle the Education Department.
Here’s McMahon explaining why the agency should be closed, and why she chooses to lead the task force in charge of doing so.
