WASHINGTON, D.C. — Damon Hewitt, the president and executive director of the Lawyers’ Committee for Civil Rights Under Law, issued this statement in response to the news that the Department of Education will cut its staff by nearly fifty percent:
“This is more outrageous news from the Trump administration, which is on a slash-and-burn mission. Cutting the Department’s workforce in half will harm K-12 students, college students, and anyone who has taken out an education loan.
“The Department of Education serves many critical functions in education for all Americans. It plays a vital role in ensuring that everyone—regardless of who they are or what community they live in—has access to a quality education in our country. The Department’s Office for Civil Rights is the place where students and parents can turn to if they are facing discrimination. Now, what should we tell those students? That their problems don’t matter? That they are being left to deal with discrimination on their own?
“In Brown v. Board of Education, a unanimous Supreme Court noted that education is ‘the very foundation of good citizenship’. Destroying the Department of Education will only serve to undermine Brown’s mandate and promise of equity and quality education for all.
“Just days ago, Trump promised to use a scalpel rather than a hatchet. But these cuts to the Department of Education are more like a bulldozer. Knowing that he cannot officially shut down the Department of Education without Congressional approval, Trump has done the closest thing to it. Unless these cuts are reversed, the Department will barely be limping along, and millions of American families will pay the price.”
