Trump Administration Is Sued Over Push to Dismantle Education Department

The Trump administration’s campaign to dismantle the Education Department drew a court challenge on Monday, as opponents called the plan an attempt to evade congressional authority.The lawsuit was filed in federal court in Massachusetts by the American Federation of Teachers, the American Association of University Professors and a pair of public school districts in Massachusetts.It comes four days after President Trump signed an executive order that directed the education secretary, Linda McMahon, to “take all necessary steps to facilitate the closure of the department.”The day after the order, Mr.

Trump announced that the Small Business Administration would assume control of the government’s $1.6 trillion student loan portfolio, and that the Health and Human Services Department would oversee nutrition programs and special education services.The Education Department, created in 1979, cannot be closed without Congress’s consent.The lawsuit argues that moves by the Trump administration since it came to power in January, including an effort to roughly halve the department’s work force, “will interfere with the department’s ability to carry out its statutorily required functions.”Ilana Krepchin, chairwoman of the Somerville, Mass., school committee, which is a plaintiff in the case, said that the Education Department is a “cornerstone of equitable public education.”“Dismantling it would cause real harm — not only to our students and schools, but to communities across the country,” Ms.

Krepchin said.Neither the White House nor the Education Department responded immediately to requests for comment on Monday.The White House press secretary, Karoline Leavitt, said on Friday that the president was “doing everything within his executive authority to dismantle the Department of Education and return education back to the states while safeguarding critical functions for students and families such as student loans, special needs programs and nutrit...