The Supreme Court allowed the Department of Education (DoEd) to continue laying off employees Monday, temporarily suspending an order by a lower court judge that blocked the DoEd from firing employees and ordered it to reinstate any employees already laid off.

DoEd laid off almost 1,400 employees in March, as part of an effort to eventually shut down the department and return educational authority to state and local governments. Two groups then filed lawsuits challenging DoEd actions.

The stay was granted in a 6-3 decision. Justice Sonia Sotomayor wrote a dissent, joined Justices Elena Kagan and Ketanji Brown Jackson. The Court’s decision remains in effect while a court of appeals takes up the administration’s appeal of the case.

Justice Sotomayor’s dissent attacked the administration’s actions and the Court’s stay, arguing only Congress has authority to dismantle the DoEd: “When the Executive publicly announces its intent to break the law, and then executes on that promise, it is the Judiciary’s duty to check that lawlessness, not expedite it. Two lower courts rose to the occasion, preliminarily enjoining the mass firings while the litigation remains ongoing. Rather than maintain the status quo, however, this Court now intervenes, lifting the injunction and permitting the Government to proceed with dismantling the Department. That decision is indefensible.”

DoEd Secretary Linda McMahon released a statement applauding the decision: “Today, the Supreme Court again confirmed the obvious: the President of the United States, as the head of the Executive Branch, has the ultimate authority to make decisions about staffing levels, administrative organization, and day-to-day operations of federal agencies. While today’s ruling is a significant win for students and families, it is a shame that the highest court in the land had to step in to allow President Trump to advance the reforms Americans elected him to deliver using the authorities granted to him by the U.S. Constitution.”

As the Daily Citizen previously reported, President Trump signed an executive order in March directing McMahon to take “all necessary steps to facilitate the closure of the Department of Education and return authority over education to the States and local communities.”

The order, “Improving Education Outcomes by Empowering Parents, States, and Communities,” stated the move “would provide children and their families the opportunity to escape a system that is failing them,” adding that the DoEd’s “main functions can, and should, be returned to the States.”

In explaining the rationale behind the layoffs and the closure of the department, the executive order stated:

Taxpayers spent around $200 billion at the Federal level on schools during the COVID-19 Pandemic, on top of the more than $60 billion they spend annually on Federal school funding. 

The Congress created the Department of Education in 1979. … Since then, the Department of Education has entrenched the education bureaucracy and sought to convince America that Federal control over education is beneficial.  While the Department of Education does not educate anyone, it maintains a public relations office that includes over 80 staffers at a cost of more than $10 million per year.

Today, American reading and math scores are near historical lows.  This year’s National Assessment of Educational Progress showed that 70 percent of 8th graders were below proficient in reading, and 72 percent were below proficient in math.  The Federal education bureaucracy is not working.  

Secretary McMahon complied with the order by reducing the number of DoEd employees from 4,133 to “roughly 2,183 workers,” explaining that almost 600 employees had accepted “voluntary resignation opportunities and retirement.”

In response to the layoffs, two separate groups filed lawsuits. The first complaint was filed by 20 Democrat-controlled states and the District of Columbia. The second was filed by two school districts in Massachusetts and several teachers unions, including the American Federation of Teachers (AFT), American Federation of Teachers Massachusetts, and American Association of University Professors.

United States District Judge Myong J. Joun, a Biden appointee, combined the two cases and ruled against the administration in May, issuing a preliminary injunction prohibiting the implementation of the executive order and mandating the reinstatement of “federal employees whose employment was terminated or otherwise eliminated.”

AFT, one of the plaintiffs, is the second largest teacher’s union in the country, representing 1.8 million teachers, school employees, federal and state employees and health care professionals. The radical organization, headed by President Randi Weingarten, opposes educational freedom; supports “LGBTQIA” activism; advocates for abortion; promotes transgender ideology, school policies and resources; and supports divisive Critical Race Theory dogma and practices.

The organization is even “opposed to self checkouts [sic] at retail stores.”

According to Open Secrets, the AFT’s Political Action Committee has spent $145 million in lobbying since 1990 – often opposing educational freedom and parental rights in education and supporting radical causes. Open Secrets also states that, in 2024, the organization gave no money to conservatives and $1.76 million to leftist candidates.

It’s unclear how this funding left-wing activism helps students learn basic skills and achieve educational success. Nor is it clear whether money spent by the DoEd actually helps students – or if it just contributes to administrative bloating and federal interference with what should be a state and local issue.

Daily Citizen is a news division of Focus on the Family that provides a faith-based perspective to counter the mainstream media’s anti-Christian bias.