Further Dismantling of Education Department Hurts Higher Ed

WASHINGTON-American Association of University Professors President Todd Wolfson and AFT President Randi Weingarten issued the following statement after the U.S. Department of Education announced it was moving critical functions to other federal agencies:

"The Trump administration's continued gutting of the Department of Education is a catastrophic attack on higher education. By scattering vital student protections across multiple bureaucratic agencies that are entirely unequipped to handle them, this administration is actively sabotaging the future of American college students.

"The shifting of responsibilities for special education and rehabilitative services to the Department of Health and Human Services will make it more difficult for postsecondary students to participate in campus accessibility programs and use assistive technology, services they are entitled to by law.

"Transferring civil rights enforcement to a Department of Justice that appears primarily focused on prosecuting President Donald Trump's political enemies will strip marginalized students of vital protections, leaving them more exposed to systemic discrimination. This move will subvert the core mission of the Office for Civil Rights, which was established to address individual complaints, investigate them and work with students and schools to address discrimination so students could keep learning. It has been the primary federal safeguard for students experiencing sexual harassment or assault; discrimination based on race, sex, disability or pregnancy; unequal discipline; retaliation; and other barriers to equal access.

"The Trump administration has already gutted the federal government's ability to protect students and twisted the OCR's original mission in order to advance its own ideological agenda. As the AAUP has reported, the weaponization of civil rights law has been a key tool in attacks on campus speech under the Trump administration. Racial harassment investigations have ground to a halt, while civil rights laws are manipulated to intimidate universities, destroy diversity initiatives, freeze campus speech and exclude transgender athletes-and this will only make it worse.

"The Civil Rights Act of 1964-passed after years of nonviolent civil disobedience against racial injustice-is now being used to squash political dissent and student speech at colleges and universities. The American people will not tolerate the deliberate destruction of civil rights protections in our higher education system. Along with parents, K-12 educators and other allies, the AAUP and the AFT will fight to reverse these changes and build a strong, just and accessible system of higher education that benefits our nation."

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The AFT represents 1.8 million pre-K through 12th-grade teachers; paraprofessionals and other school-related personnel; higher education faculty and professional staff; federal, state and local government employees; nurses and healthcare workers; and early childhood educators.