Department of Education lawsuit: AG Ellison joins effort to sue Trump administration

ST. PAUL, Minn. (FOX 9) - A coalition of 21 attorneys general, including Minnesota's Keith Ellison, are suing the Trump administration over its efforts to dismantle the Department of Education.

READ MORE: Minnesota’s education cut concerns: Walz and GOP battle over impact

Lawsuit to save Department of Education 

What they're saying:

Attorney General Ellison released this statement with the announcement of the lawsuit:

"I’ll say it as often as I have to: Donald Trump is not a king and I will not let him be a dictator. He does not have the authority to effectively shut down an entire federal department that is authorized by Congress, and his attempt to do so is illegal and unconstitutional. I’m joining my fellow attorneys general to hold him accountable and to protect the tens of millions of American students — not to mention their families and their teachers, administrators, and paraprofessionals — who rely on the Department for high-quality education and the support they need to succeed in school."

The lawsuit asserts that the administration does not have the legal authority to "unilaterally incapacitate or dismantle" the Department of Education without an act of Congress. 

The other attorneys general are from Arizona, California, Colorado, Connecticut, Delaware, the District of Columbia, Hawaii, Illinois, Maine, Maryland, Massachusetts, Michigan, Nevada, New Jersey, New York, Oregon, Rhode Island, Vermont, Washington and Wisconsin.  

By the numbers:

The news release from Ellison's office adds that the department's programs serve nearly 18,200 school districts and more than 50,000,000 K-12 students in 98,000 public schools and 32,000 private schools. The Department of Education also supports 12,000,000 post-secondary students every year. 

Trump administration effort to dismantle Department of Education 

The backstory:

Minnesota schools get about 10% of their funding from the federal government — around $1.4 billion last year.

It covers everything from Head Start to teacher training to special education services.

Fridley got almost $5 million in federal funding last year and superintendent Brenda Lewis says budgeting is a tougher task now because they have no idea how much of that is coming back next year, if any.

"This really looks like potentially looking at layoffs," superintendent Lewis said. "And as governor just talked about, when we don't have the certainty of the funding, we can't just magically budget on the same."

Financial aid is one area where experts say the job cuts will definitely impact.

They say the funding should still be there, but the workload is too big for the new staffing levels.

The other side:

Minnesota Republicans say they’re not especially concerned about the Department of Education folding.

They don’t think it means funding cuts will follow.

"The various funding streams can be shifted to other agencies or given as a block grant," said Rep. Peggy Bennett, (R-Albert Lea), also a retired teacher. "They can figure that out at the federal level. They know education's important."

Democrats point out the United States Department of Agriculture (USDA) already cut more than $1 billion for schools and food banks to buy local food, so they have reason to believe more direct cuts are coming.

Meanwhile, the only budget proposed for Minnesota so far does include reduced education spending, mainly for private schools.

"The only person that has proposed cuts to our school districts right now? Our Governor Walz," said Rep. Ben Bakeberg, (R-Jordan), a middle school principal.