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Boston Globe
12-03-2025
- Politics
- Boston Globe
Boston-based employees among US Department of Education layoffs
Most of the cuts affect staff based at the agency's Washington, D.C., headquarters, though a spokesperson for the Education Department said Wednesday a regional Boston office was closed and 'all employees in the office were impacted by the reduction in force.' The spokesperson did not specify when the office was closed or how many Boston employees were laid off. Advertisement No employees at the Massachusetts Department of Elementary and Secondary Education are affected by the cuts, said Jacqueline Reis, department spokeswoman. McMahon's agency also is canceling a lease on office space in Boston's Post Office Square, according to the Associated Press. Visited by Globe reporters Wednesday morning, the department's eighth and ninth floor offices at the John W. McCormack Federal Building were vacant, with empty rooms devoid of furniture and wires for computers cut on the floor. A spokesman for the General Services Administration, which manages the property, did not immediately return a request for comment. Related : The office space, which at one time was home to staff for the Office for Civil Rights and Federal Student Aid, appeared to have been empty for some time. A sticky note affixed to one wall and dated January 10, 2024, said the room had been 'cleared of shred, ready for movers.' The federal agency, which was established in 1979, oversees federal funding for public K-12 schools, administers student loans and federal financial aid that universities rely on for revenue, and provides programs and services for low-income students and their families, as well as those with disabilities. Advertisement Trump has accused the department of 'indoctrinating young people with inappropriate racial, sexual, and political material,' and has For as long as the department has existed, small government advocates have pushed for its demise, arguing that local governments and parents should control all aspects of K-12 education. Trump allies view the department as overly ideological and say it has failed to improve education outcomes despite its large budget. Education advocates, however, say the department has critical functions, such as providing funding to low-income school districts and special education programs. Most decisions about public schooling in the US are made by states and local districts, and federal funding has accounted for only 13 percent of all K-12 education dollars in the country in recent years. Still, the Education Department exercises sweeping oversight authority, requiring school districts to take corrective action when they've been found to be violating federal civil rights laws. Related : Because the Education Department and its primary programs were created by acts of Congress, only an act of Congress can fully abolish the department. Republicans hold majorities in both houses of Congress but lack the 60 votes in the Senate that are usually required to overcome a filibuster by Democrats. Advertisement One of the Education Department's primary responsibilities is the administration and oversight of two K-12 formula grant programs: Currently, the federal government allocates more than $18 billion in Title I and roughly $15 billion in IDEA funds to states based on formulas considering the number of low-income and special education students living there. Speaking to reporters last week about the anticipated executive order, Governor Healey expressed alarm. 'What does it mean to Massachusetts?' Healey said. 'Well, is your child on an IEP? Does your child have a disability? The services that your family gets for your child in Massachusetts go away.' Related : Creation of the Education Department came on the heels of Lyndon Johnson's 'War on Poverty,' which, through the Elementary and Secondary Education Act of 1965, dramatically expanded the US government's role in public education. The department's creation also involved political machinations, with an increasingly influential National Education Association pledging its support in the 1976 presidential election to the candidate vowing to create a Cabinet-level education agency, Jimmy Carter, said Neal McCluskey, director for the Center for Educational Freedom at the Cato Institute, a libertarian think tank located in Washington, D.C. McCluskey believes the Education Department is unconstitutional. 'The founders would never have thought that education, which is very specific to individual children, families, and communities, should be managed by this distant national government,' he said. Speaking to the Globe before the layoffs were announced, McCluskey predicted McMahon, facing challenging numbers in Congress, would rely on her greatest area of influence: her ability to hire and fire agency staff. Advertisement 'Where do you reach the point where you've fired so many people that you can't do the job that the law requires you to do?' he said. In Boston, there was no furniture in the vacant federal offices, though signs for the agency remained. In one empty room, a wallet-sized card had been left behind, pinned to a cork board. The card listed questions for Education Department staff to ask themselves throughout the workday, including: 'Is it consistent with my agency's mission?' and 'Am I using my time wisely?' On the flip side, it said: 'You have the authority and the responsibility to make government work better and cost less.' It was a quote from former vice president, Al Gore, a Democrat. Globe staff writers John Hilliard and Mike Damiano contributed to this report. This is a breaking news story and will be updated. Mandy McLaren can be reached at
Boston Globe
12-02-2025
- Politics
- Boston Globe
Feds finds Mass. education department fails to protect students with disabilities
Advertisement Department spokesperson Jacqueline Reis said in a statement the agency has taken steps over the last year to improve its special education supervision, including hiring additional staff and revising policies. 'The Department remains committed to continuous improvement efforts to enhance and refine special education services across Massachusetts and will work to implement the ordered corrective action,' Reis said. The findings come as the Trump administration scrutinizes federal spending, potentially giving the President and the new Department of Government Efficiency fodder for their critiques of public education — especially in a liberal stronghold like Massachusetts. Related : More immediately, though, the findings serve as validation for a coalition of parents and advocates long-exasperated by the state's special education system. For years, their experiences have run counter to a rosy narrative about Massachusetts' services — one supported by the federal government's own ranking system, which last year 'It was parent input — lots of parent input — that convinced (the US Education Department) to do the investigation,' said Ellen Chambers, leader of SPEDWatch, a Norwood-based advocacy group that organized family outreach to federal officials. The federal Education Department Advertisement The report divides its findings into three key areas: how the state handles disputes between local districts and parents over student services; how the state monitors whether local districts are identifying all children with disabilities; and how the state oversees the rights of special education students placed at private schools at public expense. The federal government found the state's dispute resolution procedures lacking, with Massachusetts' Problem Resolution System, which handles complaints alleging schools are districts are not meeting legal requirements for education, failing to investigate claims and issue findings within a 60-day federal time limit. The Problem Resolution System also lacks procedures for ensuring follow-through when corrective actions are required. In other words, even when the state deems a parent's claim substantive, there is no oversight to ensure a district changes its ways. Related : When it comes to identifying children in need of special education services, the federal government found Massachusetts does not have a way to monitor whether local districts are illegally delaying or denying initial evaluations. In particular, investigators warned of schools placing students for prolonged periods of time in less-intensive intervention programs — a remedial strategy that, while supported by research, cannot under federal law be used to put off an evaluation of a child suspected of having a disability. (Often, this strategy is referred to as multi-tiered systems of support, or 'MTSS,' or response to intervention, also known as 'RTI.') The federal government additionally took issue with a Massachusetts regulation related to Independent Educational Evaluations (IEE). Under federal law, parents who disagree with the findings of school district's special education evaluation have the right to request an independent evaluation at public expense. In Massachusetts, a cost-sharing regulation has resulted in parents shouldering part of the expense regardless of the facts of the case. The federal law, however, requires a local district to prove through a due process hearing that its evaluation is sound in order to win a judgment stipulating a parent must chip in for an independent assessment, investigators said. Related : Advertisement Finally, the federal government found Massachusetts unable to demonstrate it is effectively monitoring districts' oversight of students with disabilities placed at private schools. In particular, the state has no procedure in place to ensure private schools aren't violating students' rights when it comes to discipline — such as suspending a child for more than 10 school days even when his behavior is a manifestation of his disability. The state also lacks a procedure for a parent to appeal a private school's decision to terminate a student's enrollment, investigators found. The report calls for several corrective action measures with timelines ranging from 90 days to one year. Massachusetts is not an outlier when it comes needing to take corrective action. More than a dozen other states in recent years have in some way failed to properly oversee special education services, Ben Tobin, a special education advocate based in Western Massachusetts and member of SPEDWatch, called the report 'very significant.' 'Families have been shouting from the mountain tops for years,' he said. 'This really shows there's a systemic problem and that the path forward has been laid out.' Advertisement Still, Tobin worries that a swiftly changing environment in Washington could derail progress. Would would happen, he questioned, if Trump makes good on a promise to dismantle the federal Education Department — if 'no one is watching the watchmen?' 'No institution is perfect,' he said, 'but the level of detail and time (the Department) took with the probe shows why we need safeguards in place for the kids.' This is a developing story. Check back for updates. Mandy McLaren can be reached at
