Laid-off workers sound alarm on education cuts affecting disabled, cash-strapped college students

Record ID: 1982953

  • Title: Laid-off workers sound alarm on education cuts affecting disabled, cash-strapped college students
  • Date: 13th March 2025
  • Summary: DALLAS, TEXAS, UNITED STATES (MARCH 12, 2025) (REUTERS) (SOUNDBITE) (English) SHERIA SMITH, AN ATTORNEY WITH THE DEPARTMENT OF EDUCATION AND THE PRESIDENT OF THE AMERICAN FEDERATION OF GOVERNMENT EMPLOYEES LOCAL 252, SAYING: "The students who are applying for financial aid in college, not just in Chicago, but nationwide, are not going to get the information they need to de
  • Embargoed:
  • Keywords: Education Department college critical race theory disabilities disabled financial aid fired laid off students union woke
  • Location: VARIOUS
  • City: VARIOUS
  • Country: US
  • Topics: North America,Government/Politics
  • Reuters ID: LVA005839012032025RP1
  • Aspect Ratio: 16:9
  • Story Text: Laid-off Education Department employees expressed frustration with what they called misinformation about their agency including claims they have promoted 'woke ideology' on Wednesday (March 12), a day after President Donald Trump's administration announced it would lay off nearly half of the department's staff.
    "We are here to make sure that children...have an equal opportunity to educational outcomes. We are not here to tell school districts what to teach in their classrooms or what not to teach. We have not pushed woke ideology. We have not pushed critical race theory," said Brittany Coleman, an attorney with the Department of Education.
    Each office within the Education Department received lay-off notices said Sheria Smith, president of the American Federation of Government Employees Local 252, a union representing more than 2,800 department workers.
    Smith called the cuts "an illegal overreach" which could negatively impact a wide array of students -- from those with disabilities to those seeking financial aid for college.

    The layoffs are the latest step in Trump's sweeping effort to downsize the government, led by the world's richest person Elon Musk and his Department of Government Efficiency. DOGE has cut more than 100,000 jobs across the 2.3 million-member federal civilian bureaucracy, frozen most foreign aid and canceled thousands of programs and contracts, despite dozens of lawsuits challenging the legality of those moves.
    (Production: Deborah Gembara)
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