Education Department layoffs hit offices that oversee special education and civil rights enforcement

By COLLIN BINKLEY AP Tuition Writer WASHINGTON AP A new round of layoffs at the Instruction Department is depleting an agency that was hit hard in the Trump administration s previous mass firings threatening new disruption to the nation s students and schools in areas from special learning to civil rights enforcement and after-school programs Related Articles DPS warns of financial catastrophe after unexpected enrollment drop practicable funding cuts Trump administration cuts grants to Colorado colleges serving high percentage of diverse students Denver school board majority at stake in November s voting th annual Dearfield Day held at former Black townsite in Weld County CU Boulder cultural centers lose millions from federal funding cuts The Trump administration started laying off Development Department staffers on Friday amid mass firings across the cabinet meant to pressure Democratic lawmakers over the federal shutdown The layoffs would cut the agency s workforce by nearly a fifth and leave it reduced by more than half its size when President Donald Trump took office on Jan The cuts play into Trump s broader plan to shut down the Tuition Department and parcel its operations to other agencies Over the summer the department started handing off its adult training and workforce programs to the Department of Labor and it previously reported it was negotiating an agreement to pass its trillion apprentice loan portfolio to the Treasury Department Department leaders have not circulated details on the layoffs and did not this instant respond to a request for comment AFGE Local a union that represents more than department workers revealed information from employees indicates cuts will decimate several offices within the agency All workers except a small number of top functionaries are being fired at the office that implements the Individuals with Disabilities Development Act a federal law that ensures millions of students with disabilities get endorsement from their schools the union mentioned Unknown numbers are being fired at the Office for Civil Rights which investigates complaints of discrimination at the nation s schools and universities The layoffs would eliminate or heavily deplete teams that oversee the flow of grant funding to schools across the nation the union explained It hits the office that oversees Title I funding for the country s low-income schools along with the unit that manages st Century Group Learning Centers the primary federal funding source for after-school and summer learning programs It will also hit an office that oversees TRIO a set of programs that help low-income students pursue college and another that oversees federal funding for Historically Black Colleges and Universities In a comment union president Rachel Gittleman explained the new reductions on top of previous layoffs will double down on the harm to K- students students with disabilities first generation college students low-income students teachers and local tuition boards The Guidance Department had about employees when Trump took office After the new layoffs it would be down to fewer than Earlier layoffs in March had roughly halved the department but certain employees were hired back after agents decided they had cut too deep The new layoffs drew condemnation from a range of tuition organizations Although states design their own competitions to distribute federal funding for st Century District Learning Centers the small gang of federal personnel provided guidance and help that is absolutely essential commented Jodi Grant executive director of the Afterschool Alliance Firing that band is shocking devastating utterly without any basis and it threatens to cause lasting harm Grant declared in a report The regime s latest layoffs are being challenged in court by the American Federation of Authorities Employees and other national labor unions Their suit filed in San Francisco declared the leadership s budgeting and personnel offices overstepped their authority by ordering agencies to carry out layoffs in response to the shutdown In a court filing the Trump administration commented the executive branch has wide discretion to reduce the federal workforce It mentioned the unions could not prove they were harmed by the layoffs because employees would not definitely be separated for another to days after receiving notice The Associated Press schooling coverage receives financial promotion from multiple private foundations AP is solely responsible for all content Find AP s standards for working with philanthropies a list of supporters and funded coverage areas at AP org