Minnesota Attorney General Keith Ellison and 21 other state attorneys general are suing to stop the dismantling of the federal Department of Education.

The lawsuit, filed in a Massachusetts federal court, claims the Trump administration’s massive reductions in the Education Department are unconstitutional and usurp congressional authority. It seeks a court order to halt the shutdown. 

Trump officials earlier this week said they would cut nearly half the department’s staff with layoffs that would affect all its divisions.

The lawsuit claims the layoffs make it impossible for the Department of Education to fulfill key functions mandated by statute and would cause “immense damage to Plaintiff States and their educational systems.”

The reduction in force is “so severe and extreme that it incapacitates components of the Department responsible for performing functions mandated by statute, effectively nullifying those mandates,” the lawsuit claims.

“I’ll say it as often as I have to: Donald Trump is not a king and I will not let him be a dictator,” Ellison said in a statement Thursday. “He does not have the authority to effectively shut down an entire federal department that is authorized by Congress, and his attempt to do so is illegal and unconstitutional.”

Despite the plan to slash its workforce, the federal agency said in a statement that it would “continue to deliver on all statutory programs that fall under the agency’s purview, including formula funding, student loans, Pell Grants, funding for special needs students, and competitive grantmaking.”

Minnesota Education Commissioner Willie Jett said Wednesday it’s unclear what agencies would distribute federal funding if the federal agency is cut. That same day, the Minnesota Department of Education said it was unable to sign into the federal payment system that administers funding for special education, literacy grants and other programs.

The system replied with an error message explaining that “severe staffing restraints” would mean delays in getting help.

A spokesperson for the Minnesota Dept. of Education said access was regained in the afternoon and the department resumed draw requests.

Minnesota got about $2.2 billion in federal funding for education last year. The bulk of it goes toward supports for special education and English language learning programs, and for reading and math specialists.

Gov. Tim Walz on Wednesday said Minnesota’s state budget could not backfill that amount of money if the federal government doesn’t pay it.

Arizona, Nevada, Maryland, New Jersey and Wisconsin are among the other states joining the lawsuit. 

Collected from Minnesota Public Radio News. View original source here.