Lots of discussion about whether shifting education programs from US Department of Education to other federal agencies is a good idea (narrator: it isn't). Our team and Sligo Law Group looked at whether it's even legal to do so. TL;DR: It likely isn't. docs.google.com/document/d/1...

A coalition suing to block President Donald Trump’s efforts to dismantle the U.S. Department of Education expanded its lawsuit Tuesday to include objections to recent interagency agreements to shift the department’s responsibilities to other Cabinet-level agencies. From @statesnewsroom.com

The Department of Education was created by Congress and can only be dismantled by Congress.

Fun fact: The Phoenix Declaration was also the name of a statement issued by an LGBT-affirming clergy group in Arizona in 2003 that called on churches to fully welcome LGBTQ people and declared homosexuality neither a sin nor a choice and urged an end to discrimination. Probably different than this.

The U.S. Department of Education has found that students who take part in the College Access Migrant Program are far more likely to stay in school. But the Trump administration questions the effectiveness of such programs and calls them "extremely costly."

Don’t get it twisted: the people working *in* the department of education are suffering under the Trump administration’s leadership. Those running the U.S. Department of Education right now are incompetent and do not care about our nation’s students AT ALL.

Maybe it’s just us, but it’s really starting to seem like this administration does not care about the rule of law.

Hang in there, feds.

A new Trump admin rule could make employees of non-profits that work on immigration, DEI, or trans issues ineligible for Public Service Loan Forgiveness. Once again, Trump is specifically punishing employees at organizations that he ideologically opposes.

Mornin' ☕

We’ve been hearing the rumors since the day the layoffs were announced, but ED has now confirmed. Still far from a done deal though.

ICYMI: Declaration from Jacqueline Clay on the exact numbers of RIFd employees.

“There’s something opportunistic about what we’re watching right now,” says ED official from first Trump administration, astutely noting the obvious.

Court Blocks Shutdown Layoffs, But Experts Say Education Department Programs Still in Danger www.the74million.org/article/cour...

White House Guts Education Department With More Layoffs www.nytimes.com/2025/10/14/u...

Check out this new law firm powered by former Department of Education folks ready to fight back against the administration to help schools, educational agencies, and nonprofit organizations! Introducing Sligo Law Group www.sligolawgroup.com/launch-annou...

Ed. Dept. Offices Will Be Virtually Wiped Out in Latest Layoffs: The U.S. Department of Education is losing about a fifth of its already diminished workforce.

Today’s update: More folks are receiving RIF notices as the administration continues its rapid dismantling of the Department of Education.

Breaking: per internal sources, the entire Office of Special Education and Rehabilitative Services (OSERS), including OSEP and RSA beneath them, was RIFed last night at the Department of Ed. Developing story. DoEd union says may take 1-2 days for all affected employees to receive official notice.

We’ve now heard that most of the Office of Special Education and Rehabilitative Services (OSERS) at ED is being let go as well. The harm caused to students if these layoffs are allowed to proceed cannot be overstated. ED cannot carry out its statutorily required duties without these offices.

When hundreds of Department of Education employees are suddenly terminated, students bear the brunt of the consequences. Special education oversight. Grants to high-need schools. Protection of civil rights. Gone. This administration is destroying our education system from the inside out.

We are hearing that almost all of the Office of Elementary and Secondary Education (OESE) has been let go. This is devastating news for both the employees, who are being treated as nothing more than political pawns, and for K–12 education in this country—both deserve better.

Here's the latest from @insidehighered.com on the second round of layoffs at the Department of Education:

The U.S. Department of Education said on Friday it would lay employees off as workforce cut notices began to go out on the tenth day of the federal government shutdown.

Three fired Education Department lawyers are the latest to launch a law firm to represent entities affected by President Trump’s wide-ranging changes to government policies.

"When you fire the professionals, the statisticians, the scientists that can analyze the data, that allows you to make up whatever facts you want,” Ms. Smith said. @altdepted.bsky.social @alt-deptofed.bsky.social @standupforscience.bsky.social

While Kristi Noem’s out here blaming everyone but herself, here’s her own April press release bragging about clawing back $882M in disaster resilience grants. The kind that could’ve helped in Texas. They’d rather wage culture wars than actually protect human lives.

FAFO - stupid Magats. Also, the area is known as 'Flash Flood Alley'. As Forrest Gump said, 'Stupid is as stupid does.'

State by state analysis

The executive branch is refusing to distribute funding that was appropriated by Congress to be distributed in accordance with formulas laid out in statute. This violates, as they say in the legal world, a fuckton of laws.

What happened to all the employees and contracts in place to handle this work? Oh that's right...

Yup.

It’s not the guns it’s a mental health issue they said

School shootings aren’t a gun issue; they’re a mental health issue. Here’s why we’re cutting $1 billion in funding for student mental health. by Donald Trump and Elon Musk

Charter schools are public schools. Allowing a public school to teach a particular religion as truth means the end of the separation between church and state.

they are literal segregationists apnews.com/article/scho...

For all you law nerds, here's how to sign up to listen to Friday's hearing in the attorneys general lawsuit against the Department of Education: forms.mad.uscourts.gov/seating-sign...

"Not only is there an absence of “reasoned analysis” from the defendants; there is an absence of any analysis whatsoever... It is hard to fathom a more straightforward display of arbitrary and capricious actions than the Defendants’ actions here."

Students and families can't afford to pay for billionaires' tax cuts.

Thanks, @altcdc.altgov.info, for fact-checking the embarrassingly propagandist covid.gov website.

The best part of this "mistake" is how the administration is blaming Harvard for responding to the letter instead of calling to verify the authenticity of a letter signed by three federal officials, placed on official letterhead, and sent from the email inbox of a senior federal official.

This is an obvious point, but cannot overstated. There is an enormous difference between deporting someone - where they get off a plane as a free citizen in their home country AND FUNNELING THEM INTO A BRUTAL PRISON FROM WHICH THEY HAVE NO CHANCE OF EVER EMERGING!!!

🚨 Still not getting the attention it deserves: Critical systems behind Medicare, Medicaid, and more—programs that serve over 150 million Americans—are at risk of collapse. Wired article explains how mass layoffs in HHS IT + cybersecurity leave our health infrastructure dangerously exposed. 🧵

I don't understand how some folks are unable to see that the illegal disappearing of people is a class issue. The wealthy and well-connected get due process. The rest of us don't. This is part of the oligarchy, not a distraction from it.

👇👇👇

Teachers, unions & school districts need to educate their communities now about how to push back on these efforts. @massteacher.bsky.social @aftunion.bsky.social @jmnoonan.bsky.social @phaneritic.bsky.social

In case anyone was wondering what it looks like when a lawyer can't find any evidentiary support for their client's actions, I give you the administration's response to a lawsuit challenging the massive layoffs at the Dept of Education:

An incredible read (and especially satisfying coming from a Republican judge).

Why waste time with concepts like “due process” and “fairness” when you can just bully people and institutions into compliance?

Education is power. If you want to control the people you attack public education.