The Supreme Court cleared the way for President Donald Trump to ax more than a third of the jobs at the Department of Education on Monday. The court decided, with all three liberal justices dissenting, to overturn a lower-court ruling that prevented the Trump administration from cutting approximately 1,900 jobs to restructure the department. An explanation of the court’s decision was not provided, as is common for cases decided on the emergency docket. Trump, 79, hopes to eventually shutter the department entirely. That would see education decisions and programs return to individual states without federal oversight or funds. Trump claims this will provide “children and their families the opportunity to escape a system that is failing them.” The department was created by Congress in 1979 and signed into law by President Jimmy Carter. Because an act of Congress established the department, it must follow the same process to be dismantled, limiting Trump’s power to shut it down single-handedly. Still, the high court gave Trump the authority to significantly reduce the department’s current staff of 4,100 employees.
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