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The US Department of Education has asked hundreds of workers it let go earlier this year to come back to work for a short time to help with a growing number of school discrimination cases. The strange request marks a big change in a months-long fight in one of the department's most important offices.
USA TODAY got an internal email from December 5 that shows officials told a lot
of former Office for Civil Rights employees to go back to work later this
month. The message recognized that there were a lot of Civil Rights Staff complaints
that hadn't been dealt with yet and stressed the importance of using all
available resources to meet the agency's legal obligations to students,
parents, and schools across the country.
The order affects about 250 people who have been on administrative leave for
months while their terminations are still being fought in court. These workers
were let go as part of a series of layoffs that have changed the agency over
the course of the year.
Julie Hartman, the department's legal affairs press secretary, confirmed the
recall but said it doesn't mean the employees will be hired back permanently.
She said in a statement that the department plans to keep appealing the
lawsuits that are still going on about the layoffs. She also said that the
agency needs to use employees who are still getting paid by taxpayers while
legal issues are still being worked out.
The move shows how much trouble the Office for Civil Rights Staff , or OCR, is in
right now. Families have relied on the office for decades to keep students from
being discriminated against in schools and colleges. The office makes sure that
the laws are followed that protect the rights of students of color, students
with disabilities, and others who might not be treated fairly. It also helps families
who can't afford to sue their school districts or colleges and universities.
President Donald Trump's recent attempts to get rid of the Education Department
have made things even harder for the office. The administration has said over
and over that it wants to get rid of the department, but it hasn't been able to
get the approval it needs from Congress. In the meantime, the department's work
has been cut back a lot. Regional OCR offices in cities like Philadelphia and
Boston have been cut down to size, with only a small number of their original
staff still working there.
Court documents show how big the cuts are. Out of about 450 people who still
work for OCR, only about 60 have not gotten layoff notices in the past year. In
March, almost 250 people lost their jobs, and during the government shutdown in
October, another 137 people lost their jobs. Those last layoffs were undone
when lawmakers agreed to end the funding deadlock, but only 60 employees are
still unaffected by the larger cuts.
The fact that Education Secretary Linda McMahon called back laid-off workers to
work shows how hard things are for the department right now. Families who are
waiting for investigations into possible civil rights violations have had to
wait a long time since the workforce was cut in half earlier this year.
Colleges and universities have also said that the federal financial aid system
has big problems. The department is in charge of overseeing and processing the
system.
McMahon said in November that he wanted to move many of the department's main
tasks to other federal agencies. That announcement made a lot of teachers and
advocates worry that important programs might be disrupted even more. McMahon
says that changing the roles of the federal government in education will make
it work better, but critics say it could cause confusion and make it harder for
vulnerable students to get the help they need.
The temporary return of former staff is only a short-term fix as the legal
battles go on and the case backlog grows. The Office for Civil Rights'
long-term stability is still up in the air, which makes it hard for many
families to know when their complaints will be taken care of.
Also Read :- Education Excellence Magazine for More information