By Nate Raymond
BOSTON (Reuters) -A group of Democratic state attorneys general on Thursday filed a lawsuit seeking to block Republican U.S. President Donald Trump’s administration from dismantling the U.S. Department of Education and halt it from laying off nearly half of its staff.
Democratic attorneys general from 20 states and the District of Columbia filed the lawsuit in federal court in Boston after the Education Department on Tuesday announced plans to lay off more than 1,300 of its employees as part of the agency’s “final mission.”
Trump has vowed to eliminate the department, which oversees $1.6 trillion in college loans, enforces civil rights laws in schools and provides federal funding for needy districts. The job cuts if implemented would leave the department with 2,183 workers, down from 4,133 when Trump took office in January.
The lawsuit argues that the massive job cuts are an effective dismantling of the department and will incapacitate components of the agency responsible for performing functions mandated by statute, “effectively nullifying those mandates.”
For example, seven regional offices of the Department’s Office for Civil Rights have been closed down entirely, the lawsuit said.
The lawsuit argued that Secretary of Education Linda McMahon “is not permitted to eliminate or disrupt functions required by statute, nor can she transfer the department’s responsibilities to another agency outside of its statutory authorization.”
The Education Department did not immediately respond to a request for comment.
(Reporting by Nate Raymond in Boston; Editing by Andrea Ricci)
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