When Education Secretary Linda McMahon told Fox News’ Laura Ingraham this week that the staffing cuts were a step toward the total shutdown of the department, she said she was echoing President Donald Trump’s “mandate.”
“His directive to me, clearly, is to shut down the Department of Education, which we know we’ll have to work with Congress, you know, to get that accomplished,” McMahon said. “But what we did today was to take the first step of eliminating what I think is bureaucratic bloat.”
Democratic attorneys general from 21 states are now using her words to cement their legal argument: The reduction in force effectively dismantles the Department of Education, which McMahon does not have the authority to do.