education Archives - Home Safety Tech Pros

States sue Trump over Department of Education staffing cuts

homesafetytechpros — Fri, 14 Mar 2025 02:00:54 +0000

President Donald Trump speaks before Robert F. Kennedy Jr., is sworn in as HHS Secretary in the Oval Office, Thursday, Feb. 13, 2025, in Washington (Photo/Alex Brandon).

The Trump administration has pushed through an “effective dismantling” of the Department of Education through massive layoffs, a lawsuit filed Thursday in Massachusetts federal court alleges.

On March 11, the agency announced a “nearly 50%” reduction in force (RIF) with a press release. Later that same day, Secretary of Education Linda McMahon told The Hill those planned terminations were the “first step” toward the “total shutdown” of her entire department.

The plaintiffs, in their 53-page lawsuit, say the agency’s plans are “equivalent to incapacitating key, statutorily-mandated functions” that cause “immense damage” to the educational systems of several states. The complaint alleges the would-be federal firing spree is illegal — in violation of both the U.S. Constitution and federal law.

Moreover, the filing argues, the ongoing and upcoming reductions in staffing amount to an unlawful end-run around congressional authority in order to advance President Donald Trump’s stated goal of shuttering the department in de facto if not de jure terms.

“But the Trump Administration cannot dismantle the Department of Education,” the lawsuit reads. “It cannot override — whether through large-scale RIFs or otherwise — the statutory framework prescribing the Department’s responsibilities. As the Supreme Court put it nearly a century ago, ‘[t]o Congress under its legislative power is given the establishment of offices [and] the determination of their functions and jurisdiction.’ And, thus, administrative agencies ‘are creatures of statute.””

In other words, and in a recurring theme prevalent in litigation against the current government, statutory authority holds sway over presidential directives and agency interpretations of such directives, according to the plaintiffs.

Led by New York Attorney General Letitia James, a Democrat, and joined by 20 other attorneys general, the lawsuit aims to enjoin McMahon from going through with the firings slated to occur on March 21. The litigation also seeks a declaratory judgment that plans to dismantle the agency are unlawful and an injunction barring both Trump and McMahon from effectuating the directive.

“Because neither the President nor his agencies can undo the many acts of Congress that authorize the Department, dictate its responsibilities, and appropriate funds for it to administer, the President’s directive to eliminate the Department of Education — including through the March 11 decimation of the Department’s workforce and any other agency implementation — is an unlawful violation of the separation of powers, and the Executive’s obligation to take care that the law be faithfully executed,” the lawsuit goes on.

The core issue is basic constitutional governance, the lawsuit alleges.

“It is a bedrock constitutional principle that the President and his agencies cannot make law,” the filing continues. “Rather, they can only — and indeed, they must — implement the laws enacted by Congress, including those statutes that create federal agencies and dictate their duties. The Executive thus can neither outright abolish an agency nor incapacitate it by cutting away the personnel required to implement the agency’s statutorily-mandated duties.”

To hear the plaintiffs tell it, the administration has not only telegraphed its intent to dismantle the agency in violation of federal law but has been “effectively nullifying” multiple mandates — also contained in federal law — through “severe and extreme” staff reductions.

Notably, nearly 600 DOE employees have already parted ways with the agency by accepting earlier-issued buyout offers.

“On information and belief, the RIF devastated important segments of the Department of Education, rendering the agency unable to perform its core functions,” the lawsuit claims.

Several offices within the DOE have been “gutted” to the point of either nonexistence or “effective elimination” since staff reduction was started earlier this year, the plaintiffs allege.

Among those impacted by staff cuts so far include “seven regional offices of the Department’s Office for Civil Rights,” the DOE’s Office of General Counsel — including “all” attorneys “specializing in K — 12 grants, IDEA grants, and equity grants” as well as most attorneys “focused on privacy issues” — and the Office of Special Education and Rehabilitation Services.

Student loan-focused employees have been particularly hard hit by the administration’s plans, the lawsuit alleges.

“On information and belief, the RIF has also seriously impacted the Department of Education’s [Office of Federal Student Aid],” the filing goes on. “FSA directs, coordinates, and recommends policies for programs that are designed to provide financial assistance to eligible students enrolled in postsecondary educational institutions. This assistance includes grants, loans, and work-study assistance to nearly 12.9 million students through approximately 6,100 postsecondary institutions.”

The plaintiffs elaborate on this office, at length:

Included in this system is the administration of Pell Grants, work-study programs and subsidized loans. The Department awards more than $120 billion a year in grants, work-study funds, and low-interest loans to approximately 13 million students. Much of this funding is sent directly to colleges and universities, including public colleges and universities in the Plaintiff States. If Program Participation Renewals are not processed in a timely manner, it could impact the ability of institutions to operate and most of their student to attend the institution by functionally eliminating the availability of financial aid.

The lawsuit also argues the directive violates the Administrative Procedure Act (APA) because the extant and proposed staffing cuts “failed to consider” the vast array of problems that would result from such an extensive workforce depletion. The APA governs all administrative agencies and often works to halt actions deemed “arbitrary and capricious” by a reviewing court.

“The Department’s RIF is arbitrary and capricious because the Department’s stated reasons for the RIF — to promote ‘efficiency’ and ‘accountability’ — are pretext for the President and Secretary McMahon’s stated goal of dismantling the Department from within,” the filing argues. “The Department’s RIF is arbitrary and capricious because the Agency Defendants’ actions impede their ability to perform the Department’s functions, both those that are required by statute and those that are not.”

Source link

The post States sue Trump over Department of Education staffing cuts appeared first on Home Safety Tech Pros.

New Civics Education Program Puts a Local Lens on Landmark Supreme Court Cases

homesafetytechpros — Thu, 01 Feb 2024 18:53:14 +0000

Main content

High school students in the St. Louis area participate in a new civics education program at the Thomas F. Eagleton U.S. Courthouse.
Eighth Circuit Clerk of Court Michael E. Gans provides students with insights into the appellate process.

Twenty-two high school students in the St. Louis area were the first to participate in a new civics education program teaching them about the federal Judiciary through a landmark Supreme Court case that originated in their hometown and local court.

“By hosting the program in the very court where a particular case began, and then immersing the students in not only the law and facts of the case but, as importantly, the people and places, the program powerfully connects students to the factual roots the case has with the students’ hometown,” said U.S. District Chief Judge Stephen R. Clark, who kicked off the national initiative at the Thomas F. Eagleton U.S. Courthouse in the Eastern District of Missouri.

The multi-day program, called The Supreme Court and My Hometown, immerses students in the analysis of facts, trials, and appeals that lead to Supreme Court decisions. During the inaugural program, students explored the constitutional questions and procedural history of Hazelwood v. Kuhlmeier, a 1988 free speech case involving student journalists at Hazelwood East High School in St. Louis.

The program was run in partnership with the Supreme Court Historical Society and the St. Louis Chapter of the Federal Bar Association.

“One of the primary missions of the Supreme Court Historical Society is to increase public knowledge about both the history of the Supreme Court and the federal Judiciary, and the importance of their independence,” said James C. Duff, executive director. “Students will see how issues of local and regional significance can have national impact as well. In this way, they also learn about how a case progresses to the Supreme Court and the role the federal courts play in the process.”

Students prepare for a moot court proceeding during The Supreme Court and My Hometown program in St. Louis.

By partnering with the Supreme Court Historical Society, federal courts can host unique experiences for students that may include educational sessions with legal mentors, teaching how to write a legal brief, putting on a student-led moot court proceeding of a landmark Supreme Court case that originated at the court, and more.

“Many students, especially in rural areas, believe the court system is so out of reach and that warps their perception on the system as a whole,” said Cordelia Elder, a high school student who participated in the St. Louis program. “It is necessary for students to learn this information, and it was such a privilege to learn it in the building it happens in.”

Students also complete a final project designed to promote their increased understanding of the impact of the hometown case. In St. Louis, students worked with the Eighth Circuit Library to design a panel display about Hazelwood v. Kuhlmeier that includes the background of the case and the impact of the Supreme Court decision. The display will be unveiled at the St. Louis Judicial Learning Center later this year.

“To the person who walks through the doors of an imposing courthouse for his or her case, courthouses can be intimidating,” Clark said. “All the more so with the Supreme Court. The program dissipates the intimidation factor by welcoming students into the courthouse over the course of a semester and connecting them with the broad array of people who work there.”

High school student Aiyla Ahmad found The Supreme Court and My Hometown both informative and rewarding.

“I gained a very important inside perspective on our court system and also learned a lot about how a case moves through the courts and makes it to the Supreme Court,” Ahmad said. “I also discovered many different jobs in the judicial branch.”

Students can apply now for June programs in Chattanooga, Tennessee, and Indianapolis, Indiana, from the Supreme Court Historical Society website. Applications are due by March 1.

To learn more about the program, contact Nicole Maffei, the director of civics education for the Supreme Court Historical Society.

Related Topics: Public Education

Source link

The post New Civics Education Program Puts a Local Lens on Landmark Supreme Court Cases appeared first on Home Safety Tech Pros.

True Calling: Ameelio platform helps inmates communicate more easily with family and get an education

homesafetytechpros — Thu, 28 Dec 2023 01:16:46 +0000

(Photo of Ameelio founders Uzoma Orchingwa, right, and Gabriel Saruhashi by Elevate Photography/ABA Journal)

As Uzoma Orchingwa began studying at Yale Law School in 2017, he kept thinking about the civic dysfunction he witnessed as a child in Nigeria. He also thought about friends he met after his family moved to West Hartford, Connecticut, who ended up being incarcerated as teenagers.

It occurred to him that law alone couldn’t solve problems with mass incarceration and that technology might help bridge the gap.

“There are a lot of predatory companies within the prison space that are making lives very difficult for families when it comes to phone calls or access to quality education,” says Orchingwa, 31, a 2022 graduate of Yale’s joint MBA/JD program. “My idea was to challenge those companies and build an alternative solution that could provide families with completely free communication but also enable them to connect with critical resources they lacked prior to incarceration.”

Orchingwa needed a technical co-founder, and after discovering a group of Yale students who were building technologies for nonprofits, he emailed Gabriel Saruhashi. The Brazilian-born Saruhashi, a double major in computer science and psychology, had worked as a summer intern at Facebook and jumped at the chance to use his skills to help Orchingwa improve the lives of people in prison.

Orchingwa and Saruhashi used their savings to launch the technology nonprofit Ameelio in March 2020. The duo offers families a free mobile app that allows them to send letters into prisons. They since have sent nearly 2 million letters to facilities nationwide, says Orchingwa, Ameelio’s CEO.

They also wanted to break into real-time communications to help families, some of whom pay up to $25 for a 15-minute phone call. They began interviewing formerly and currently incarcerated people and correctional officers to better understand challenges in the system. In June 2021, they launched what they call the nation’s first no-cost prison video calling platform.

In addition to automating the family visitation process, Ameelio’s platform allows prison staff to verify users and monitor and record calls when necessary. It has expanded to include voice calls and messaging and can be used by attorneys for confidential communication.

Prison systems in Iowa, Colorado and Maine, which comprise 35 facilities, are now using Ameelio’s platform. Beth Skinner, the director of the Iowa Department of Corrections, said after the launch that its facilities received video visits from 44 states and 12 countries.

During their research, Orchingwa and Saruhashi found that incarcerated people, particularly those in rural facilities, lack access to educational programming. This problem was amplified during the COVID-19 pandemic, when community college instructors struggled to reach their students during lockdowns, says Saruhashi, 24, who graduated from Yale in 2022. “We saw an opening to invest heavily in the education space because literally, educators were coming to us and saying, ‘I cannot talk to my students; there is no way for me to message them,’” says Saruhashi, Ameelio’s chief technology officer.

Ameelio’s platform not only facilitates virtual learning with video calls and messaging but also provides digital resources that incarcerated people can use to guide their own learning. The tech nonprofit will soon launch this service in prison systems in Mississippi and Rhode Island.

Ameelio has attracted major donors, including Twitter co-founder Jack Dorsey, former eBay CEO Devin Wenig and former Google CEO Eric Schmidt as well as the American Bar Endowment and tech nonprofit accelerator Fast Forward. Orchingwa and Saruhashi, who have a team of 17 employees, aim to expand to all 50 states and into the federal prison system. (In January, President Joe Biden signed the Martha Wright-Reed Just and Reasonable Communications Act of 2022, allowing the Federal Communications Commission to regulate charges for prison communication services.)

They also launched a second company in May called Emerge Career that provides job training to help incarcerated people move into high-demand jobs in the trucking industry after their release. They hope to add health care and manufacturing tracks this year.

Legal Rebels Class of 2023

Stacy Butler

Josh Blandi

Zachariah DeMeola

Sonja Ebron and Debra Slone of Courtroom5

Natalie Anne Knowlton

Uzoma Orchingwa and Gabriel Saruhashi of Ameelio

Patrick Palace

Janis C. Puracal

In This Podcast:

Source link

The post True Calling: Ameelio platform helps inmates communicate more easily with family and get an education appeared first on Home Safety Tech Pros.