Eleven Democratic senators sent a letter Thursday demanding an investigation into the Trump administration’s efforts to dismantle the Education Department, warning the cuts could have “disastrous consequences.”
The letter, sent to the department’s acting inspector general, René Rocque, comes amid upheaval at U.S. agencies as President Donald Trump and his billionaire adviser Elon Musk embark on a frenetic spree to slash government spending.
Trump has long wanted to eliminate the Education Department — but can’t do so entirely without congressional approval. Last week, he signed an executive order directing Education Secretary Linda McMahon to start winding down the department, and earlier this month, the Education Department announced it was reducing its workforce by nearly 50%. McMahon said the move reflected the department’s commitment to “efficiency, accountability, and ensuring that resources are directed where they matter most: to students, parents, and teachers.”
The senators balked at that in their letter, arguing that the cuts “threaten to hurt the very groups that the Department is purportedly aiming to serve.”
“The roughly 1,300 layoffs disproportionately target employees who served on teams that facilitate financial aid for tens of millions of families, enforce our civil rights laws, and ensure that every student has a place to learn in our K-12 public schools,” they wrote in the letter, which was shared first with NBC News.
There was no immediate response to the letter Thursday from the Education Department’s Office of Inspector General. White House spokesperson Harrison Fields defended the Trump administration.
“While the Democrats have no other plan to combat the massive successes of the Trump administration other than lawsuits and investigations, if they were really serious about the dismantlement of the Department of Education, they should have launched investigations into the department’s failure to achieve its mission to better the education of every student in America,” he said in a phone interview.
In statements to NBC News, the senators who signed the letter said the administration’s actions would harm generations of students.
“Billionaire co-presidents Donald Trump and Elon Musk are taking a chainsaw to public schools because it’s not their kids who will suffer the consequences,” said Sen. Elizabeth Warren, D-Mass.
Co-signer Sen. Jeanne Shaheen, D-N.H., urged a thorough investigation.
“Parents, students and teachers across this country deserve to know just how badly Trump’s extreme actions will decimate our education system and obstruct our ability to invest in our kids’ futures,” she said.
The letter was also signed by Democratic Sens. Chuck Schumer of New York; Richard Blumenthal of Connecticut; Dick Durbin of Illinois; Mazie Hirono of Hawaii; Alex Padilla of California; Peter Welch of Vermont; Angela Alsobrooks of Maryland; and Ron Wyden and Jeff Merkley of Oregon.
Merkley said in a statement that Trump’s “illegal gutting of the Education Department will only take good teachers out of the classroom and prevent students from accessing higher education,” adding that he will “fight like hell” for students.
“Our teachers, students, and families deserve better than an administration determined to destroy public education in America,” he said.
Trump has said he wants states, not the Education Department, to have oversight over the education system. His plan faces opposition from Democrats in the Republican-controlled Senate, who worry that states will not be able to afford to replace the loss in federal funding.
Under Trump’s proposal, certain functions carried out by the Education Department would be transferred to other agencies. Trump said programs for students with disabilities would go to the Department of Health and Human Services, for example, while federal student loans would be handled by the Small Business Administration.
The senators questioned the legality of the proposed moves in their letter.
“These actions likely contravene the law and will hurt students and families everywhere. Only Congress can choose to abolish the Department of Education; the President cannot shut down the Department by decree,” the senators wrote. “Additionally, the Higher Education Act, a federal law passed by Congress and signed by the President, explicitly requires the Department of Education to manage student financial assistance under Title IV, including student loans.”
They also expressed concern that the changes would impact other critical areas such as investigations into civil rights violations and research on educational outcomes.
Decimating the Education Department “threatens to have disastrous consequences for American students, teachers, and families,” the senators wrote.
The National Education Association, the country’s largest teachers union, said gutting the Education Department would send class sizes soaring and make higher education further out of reach for all students.
“America’s educators and parents won’t be silent as Donald Trump, Elon Musk, and Linda McMahon try to steal opportunities from our students, our families, and our communities to pay for tax cuts for billionaires,” the association’s president, Becky Pringle, said in a statement to NBC News on Thursday.
The senators are asking for an evaluation of both the financial feasibility of state and local governments taking over education funding and program administration as well as the possible far-reaching effects of dismantling the Education Department.
Blumenthal said such an investigation is “necessary to better understand the impact of the Administration’s recklessness.”
“President Trump’s gutting of the Department of Education has thrown classrooms all across America into chaos,” he said in a statement.
