Employees at the Office of Civil Rights regional office in San Francisco are among those being cut as part of drastic changes at the United States Department of Education. Sergio Quintana reports.
Employees at the Office of Civil Rights regional office in San Francisco are among those being cut as part of drastic changes at the United States Department of Education.
The federal agency announced this week about 1,300 employees will be laid off, which amounts to nearly half of the department's workforce.
President Donald Trump's Secretary of Education Linda McMahon, a former pro-wrestling promoter, said the widespread staff cuts is one of the first steps in the administration's overall goal for the department.
"His directive to me clearly is to shut down the Department of Education," McMahon said.
But the president does not have the legal authority to do that because it is a congressionally mandated agency.
By slashing half of its workforce, critics said the administration is effectively crippling the department, while McMahon said she is eliminating "bureaucratic bloat."
One parent with a disabled child is worried what affect the cuts will have on his access to services.
"If we go backwards, we are going to see such a regression in the most vulnerable population," said Lindsay Latham, a mother and disability advocate.
McMahon said her department will continue administering all special education funding and statutory programs. But among the Department of Education workers who are likely out of a job are those in the department's Office of Civil Rights.
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According to ProPublica, seven of that department's regional offices are being shuttered as part of the cuts, leaving five remaining in operation. The San Francisco office is reportedly among those on the closure list.
The department's Office of Civil Rights website shows there are currently more than 760 open investigation of local school systems and universities in California. Those investigators are looking into possible claims ranging from racial harassment to disability violations.
It was unclear on Wednesday what happens to those investigations.
Meanwhile, the department's Office of Civil Rights on Tuesday announced it has sent letters to 60 universities across the country warning of violations for not protecting Jewish students during recent pro-Palestinian demonstrations on campuses.
Among those universities being sent letters in the Bay Area are Stanford and the University of California, Berkeley.
UC Berkeley School of Law Dean Erwin Chemerinsky believes a federal judge's injunction that was issued recently stops widespread federal employee firings and will likely be extended to cover the new jobs cuts by the Department of Education.
