Today is a hard day for many of our colleagues who devoted their careers to helping America’s students and educators. Today, the Trump admin is terminating over 1,000 Dept. of Ed workers & gutting our agency, but the value of our work is not forgotten⬇️.

Read the full story in @politico Weekly Education:.

Pres. Smith summed it up – “The truth is that since the beginning of this administration, the Department of Education has stonewalled working cooperatively with us, making an already difficult separation even harder for so many people.”.

Here is what our members received – one email telling them their health insurance would be in place for 31 days after separation, and then their health insurance portal saying ‘inactive’⬇️.

ICYMI: Pres. Sheria Smith in @politico: “It appears that this administration is intentionally making what’s already been a traumatic experience for dozens of our members who lost their jobs on August 1, even more traumatic by sharing conflicting information about their benefits.”.

TLDR: This is what happens when you cut 50% of our agency’s workforce – backlogs & abandonment.

She spotlighted the larger strategy at play here by the Trump admin:. “When you fire the professionals, the statisticians, the scientists that can analyze the data, that allows you to make up whatever facts you want.”.

Pres. Sheria Smith broke it down for @nytimes – put simply, there is no quality control for any data collected. Those at our agency, including federal scientists and data experts, who would certify the quality of data collected by contractors have been fired by the Trump admin.

After sweeping layoffs at the Dept. of Ed & plans to dismantle our entire agency, Trump wants admissions data – but no one is left to collect it.🤔.

Jason Cottrell, who was fired today as a Data Coordinator at ED, joined MSNBC’s @AnaCabrera, where he laid out the consequences our education system is already facing and the critical resources students, teachers, and families will further lose as Trump dismantles our department.

As over 1,000 of our ED colleagues are separated today, we must hold the Administration accountable for wasting over $7M/month of taxpayer dollars to prevent us from doing our jobs, only to now fire us right as students and teachers go back to school.

Chief Steward Brittany Coleman shared w/ @NPR the importance of her civil rights work – helping those “who may not have the means to seek out an attorney when their students are having trouble in school”. Students' civil rights complaints may now be delayed or go uninvestigated.

Pres. Sheria Smith & Office of Civil Rights Atty explained that the few ED workers still employed now face impossible workloads. "Complaints aren't getting worked on, and it's not any fault of our colleagues who are left behind. It's because the work has just increased so much.".

Workers like Jason Cottrell, who worked in the Office of Postsecondary Education for over nine years, asks, if we lose essential data and workers who analyze data to ensure taxpayer dollars are used responsibly to help students and schools, "are we protecting the taxpayers?”.

RT @studentlegalnet: We are filing a grievance on behalf of AFGE Local 252 to stop the illegal dismantling of FSA. Dismantling FSA will ha….

As Brittany highlighted on @MarkTLive, we won’t be able to go back in time and fix the harm that students are experiencing. Our students are bearing the brunt of this admin's attack on our department, and that's the most disconcerting part for us at ED⬇️.

Our members sought careers at ED because, as Brittany shared on @majorityfm, we all believe in serving our communities. We are dedicated to supporting our students and teachers, but this admin is keeping us from doing this essential work.⬇️.

ICYMI: Chief Steward Brittany Coleman joined The Majority Report & The Mark Thompson Show to break down the devastating impact the Supreme Court allowing the dismantling of ED will have on our ability to aid in the success of students and teachers across the country. 🧵.