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I Used To Work at the Department of Education. That’s Why I Know How Bad Trump’s Project 2025-Backed Firings Will Be.
Years ago, I was a civil rights attorney with the U.S. Department of Education’s Office for Civil Rights (OCR), focusing on policy addressing gender equity in schools. That’s why I know just how disastrous Trump’s Project 2025-backed cuts to the Department of Education will be for students and communities.
At OCR I worked with brilliant, smart, and passionate individuals who came to work every day to ensure that every child had equal access to a quality and well-resourced education. OCR staff develop guidance to ensure schools comply with civil rights law, collect data about students’ experiences with discrimination, provide technical assistance to help schools protect students’ rights, and investigate institutions that engage in discrimination.
And now, because of the Trump administration, half of the people doing this and other critical work for the Department of Education will be gone. Half.
While I was there, OCR:
- Issued guidance addressed how schools must protect trans students from discrimination and ensure gender equity in career and technical education programs;
- Opened investigations into educational institutions, like Baylor University, for their systemic failures to protect students from sexual assault; and
- Investigated systemic issues of schools engaging in racial harassment and racially discriminatory discipline, which continues to be evident by the Department’s data revealing Black students are much more likely than their white peers to be discriminatorily disciplined.
And after I left, under the Biden administration OCR:
- Changed its Title IX rule to strengthen protections against sex discrimination in schools, including for LGTBQI+ students, pregnant and parenting students, and student survivors of sexual violence;
- Issued guidance addressing discriminatory discipline of disabled students; and
- Entered into a landmark resolution agreement with a school district in Georgia addressing the unlawful hostile environment created for students based on the banning of books targeting issues of race, gender, and sexuality.
These are just a handful of the many, many important ways OCR has worked to protect all students.
But now, we’re reckoning with a very different agency.
Consistent with Project 2025’s plan to gut the Department of Education, on March 11, 2025, the Department fired over 1,300 employees — this is in addition to the nearly 600 employees who were pressured into resigning or forced out because of Trump’s anti-DEI order over the past two months. Those recently laid off by the reduction in force include 243 staff at OCR, 326 staff in the Federal Student Aid office (FSA), and 105 staff in the Institute of Education Sciences (IES), in addition to smaller numbers of employees laid off from other offices. OCR’s regional offices, which investigated civil rights complaints, are now skeletons of what they used to be. OCR’s regional offices in Chicago, Philadelphia, New York City, Dallas, San Francisco, Boston, and Cleveland have been closed entirely.
This comes at a time where civil rights complaints filed with the Department of Education have increased more than 200 percent from five years ago. Just last year, more than 22,600 complaints were filed.
The Trump administration cannot just get rid of OCR, FSA, or IES because they were created by Congress through the Department of Education Organization Act, and we have separation of powers for a reason. That’s why Trump’s keeping the offices — hampered in what they can do with a significant reduction of staff — instead of closing them down completely.
This mass firing is not only disruptive (and unlawful) — it’s deliberate. It is an intentional effort to weaken, and ultimately dismantle, the Department’s critical functions, as promised by Trump and Project 2025. And beyond the institutional damage, it’s a cruel blow to the Department’s dedicated public servants, who have spent their careers protecting students’ rights and ensuring access to quality, equitable education. They woke up after the reduction in force facing uncertainty, not because they failed in their mission, but because their mission at the Department is under attack.
Mass firings aren’t the only way Trump is undermining the critical work of the Department of Education and the Office for Civil Rights in particular. His administration has also changed how remaining OCR staff can use civil rights laws. Instead of using them to protect students, OCR staff are now tasked with weaponizing civil rights laws against trans students, students of color, and students who are protesting on campus for Palestinian rights. In just the past month, OCR has opened several investigations into school districts and colleges that have trans inclusive sports policies, wasting federal resources to bully schools into discriminating against trans kids.
Firing and subverting the workers who ensure students have access to the programs and resources they need to access quality education and develop into their best selves is, quite frankly, despicable. The Trump administration has abandoned students, parents, and educators across the nation.
Make no mistake: students will suffer because of this. Our children will suffer. And this will fall especially hard on vulnerable children — with impacts that will last years. Education is the bedrock of our democracy, and as a civil rights agency, the Department of Education exists to ensure every student — regardless of race, family income, sex, or ability — has a fair shot. These attacks will mean that students will see crucial educational services disappear, civil rights protections weakened, and higher education more expensive.
Destroying this agency is more than reckless; it’s an attack on our democracy itself.
