A coalition of twenty-one Democratic attorneys general sued the Trump administration Thursday after the Department of Education cut nearly half of its workforce.
The mass layoffs were “reckless and illegal” and will impede educational excellence across the country, according to the lawsuit led by New York Attorney General Letitia James that seeks to stop the Education Department from dismantling itself.
“This administration may claim to be stopping waste and fraud, but it is clear that their only mission is to take away the necessary services, resources, and funding that students and their families need,” James said in a statement. “Firing half of the Department of Education’s workforce will hurt students throughout New York and the nation. … This outrageous effort to leave students behind and deprive them of a quality education is reckless and illegal.”
The lawsuit responds to Education Secretary Linda McMahon’s announcement Tuesday saying her department would cut more than 1,300 employees, including nearly 600 workers who accepted voluntary resignation offers and retirement. The move comes as President Donald Trump and McMahon consider shuttering the department entirely, a proposal that has been backed by top congressional Republicans.
The White House said in a statement to the Washington Examiner that “The Trump Administration is prepared to fight these battles in court and will prevail.”
“Partisan elected officials and judicial activists who seek to legally obstruct President Trump’s agenda are defying the will of 77 million Americans who overwhelmingly re-elected President Trump, and their efforts will fail,” the statement continued.
“Many of them don’t work at all. … They’re not doing a good job,” Trump said of the 1,315 Education Department employees laid off. “We’re keeping the best ones.”
Republicans have characterized the Department of Education as a largely failed bureaucracy that has presided over an era of educational decline. Trump’s deep cuts to the department also come amid his administration’s effort to cut government waste and save taxpayer dollars under Elon Musk’s Department of Government Efficiency.
However, the Education Department’s workforce reductions unleashed fury from Democrats and one of the largest teacher’s unions in the country.
“Many of America’s global competitors — and adversaries — are no doubt cheering President Donald Trump’s plan to dismantle the U.S. Department of Education,” American Federation of Teachers President Randi Weingarten posted on X. “They know that countries who out-educate the rest of the world will out-compete it.”
McMahon responded to Weingarten’s concerns during an interview on Tuesday with Fox News host Laura Ingraham.
“Well, clearly, we’re not taking away education,” McMahon said. “The president never said that. He’s taking the bureaucracy out of education so that more money flows to the states. … Better education is closest to the kids. … I think we’ll see our scores go up with our students when we can educate them with parental input as well,” she said.
The attorneys general of Arizona, California, Colorado, Connecticut, Delaware, Hawaii, Illinois, Maine, Maryland, Massachusetts, Michigan, Minnesota, Nevada, New Jersey, Oregon, Rhode Island, Washington, Wisconsin, Vermont and the District of Columbia joined James’s lawsuit.
James has served as the state’s attorney general since 2019 and has earned criticism from Trump for allegedly leading “a relentless, pernicious, public and unapologetic crusade” against the president. Trump reportedly ordered her security clearance to be revoked last month.
TRUMP REVOKING SECURITY CLEARANCES FOR BLINKEN, BRAGG, AND LETITIA JAMES: REPORT
New York’s top cop is currently leading a legal challenge, along with thirteen other Democratic attorneys general, attempting to block DOGE from accessing the Treasury Department’s payment system.
Last year, James won a $454 million civil fraud case against Trump, which accused him of inflating his net worth by billions of dollars to get a better loan.
