Trump's education cuts put Illinois at risk of losing $3 billion in federal funding, Pritzker warns

Governor JB Pritzker denounced the Trump administration’s massive Department of Education layoffs in front of hundreds of Illinois teachers this morning, prompting a chorus of boos for the president.

Speaking at an Illinois Education Association conference in Rosemont, Pritzker said the cuts announced this week put at risk more than $3 billion in federal funding that Illinois is expecting this summer, which is something he said the state “cannot replace.”

He also said the Trump administration could shrink crucial programs that support students from low-income families and students with special needs.

“When Donald Trump and the people that he appoints tear down the Department of Education, when they take away funding … from kids across this nation who deserve to be able to get a good public education … they are damaging what we can do for our people here in the state of Illinois,” Pritzker said.

That’s why, Pritzker told the state’s largest teachers’ union, Illinois is joining 20 Democratic-led states and Washington D.C. in a federal lawsuit challenging the sweeping layoffs. The lawsuit argues that the cuts amount to an illegal dismantling of an agency created by Congress.

The layoffs announced Tuesday are part of a dramatic downsizing of the department directed by President Trump. He has pushed for a full shutdown of the Education Department, calling it a “con job” and saying its power should be turned over to states. On Wednesday he told reporters many agency employees “don’t work at all.”

The cuts resulted in the departure of dozens of Department of Education employees from its Chicago offices. The Office for Civil Rights, which enforces anti-discrimination laws in schools, was entirely eliminated. It handled cases involving families trying to get school services for students with disabilities, allegations of bias related to race and religion and complaints over sexual violence at schools and college campuses.

Chicago’s office overseeing Federal Student Aid also saw the departure of 12 staff members. That’s left laid-off workers like Sheria Smith, the president of the union representing Education Department employees, worried that high school seniors won’t get the information they need this spring from the department to decide which colleges they can afford to attend.

“I just don’t know how that’s possible because this administration has eliminated hundreds of people who do that work without any plan to continue the work, to continue those services,” Smith said.

At her confirmation hearing, Education Secretary Linda McMahon told lawmakers that her aim is not to defund key programs, but to make them operate more efficiently.

Pritzker said he is all for efficiency, “but the question is, can they deliver those services without the people actually running them and operating them? There needs to be some effectuation of justice in our schools across the country.”

Anna Savchenko is a reporter for WBEZ. You can reach her at asavchenko@wbez.org.