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The U.S. Department of Education is investigating  whether Milwaukee Public Schools uses race as a factor when considering disciplining students.

The investigation comes as the department on Tuesday issued new guidance to educational institutions. The department argues that using race as a factor when disciplining is a violation of Title VI. Title VI prohibits discrimination on the basis of race, color and national origin in programs that receive federal financial assistance. 

MPS media relations manager Stephen Davis said the district received notice from the department’s Office for Civil Rights on Tuesday morning. 

A statement released Tuesday by the Department of Education doesn’t specify what prompted the investigation, but says that education leaders in Milwaukee “derided facially neutral school policies as reflecting systemic ‘whiteness,’ seemingly encouraging school officials to consider race in disciplinary practices.”  

Davis said the district will need more information from the department to respond appropriately.  

New school discipline policy guidance

The Department of Education’s new guidance, referred to as a “Dear Colleague Letter,” is not a legal statute, but instead explains how the administration interprets existing laws. It details how discipline policies “must treat students even-handedly and must neither favor nor disfavor any student based on their race.” 

The letter argues that the Constitution protects against intentional discrimination, not unintentional impacts. 

“Mere statistical disparities generally cannot show discriminatory intent or disparate treatment,” the statement said.

If discipline policies are adopted and applied without wrongful racial intent, are facially neutral and applied even-handedly without regard to race, the Department of Education argues that those policies do not violate Title VI.

A letter sent to Milwaukee Public Schools did not provide information about the investigation past a basic notification and information on how to get in contact with the Office of Civil Rights.

MPS was one of only two school districts, the other in Fayetteville, Arkansas, being investigated.

The Wisconsin Institute for Law and Liberty, a conservative public-interest law firm, issued a statement praising the Trump administration for investigating race-based discipline practices at MPS.

“(Wisconsin Institute for Law and Liberty) has sounded the alarm on race-based approaches to school discipline for years, beginning with federal guidance issued during the Obama administration and renewed under the Biden administration,” read the statement.

Oversuspension of Black and Latino male students at MPS

David Castillo, who was part of the founding team of the district’s Department of Black and Latino Male Achievement, helped establish the curriculum formed largely as a solution to the oversuspension of Black and Latino boys in the district. 

The Office of Civil Rights pushed MPS to reform its disciplinary policies in 2018 after a multi-year investigation found over 100 instances over a two-year span where Black students were expelled when white students were suspended for similar infractions. Black students also received harsher discipline than white students.

Castillo said he saw lower suspension rates for Black and Latino boys for fighting while participating in Black and Latino Male Achievement because the program helped to see students like them reflected in a positive light.

Because the data showed that these students were disproportionately suspended at higher rates, Castillo said, it was important to target that demographic specially. 

Castillo said focusing on solutions for those most marginalized and affected by an issue opens the potential to find solutions for everyone else. 

“You’re going to want to start where you see things are ineffective,” Castillo said.

Racial disparities in suspensions remain

Black students are still disciplined at disproportionate rates at MPS.

Black students were involved in 54% of the incidents that resulted in disciplinary action during the 2024-25 school year but made up 78% of suspensions and 86% of expulsions, according to data from the Wisconsin Department of Public Instruction.

White students at MPS were involved in 9.5% of discipline incidents, made up 2% of suspensions and had no expulsions. 

Henry Leonard, an MPS board member until 2025, pushed for the district to experiment with restorative practices as an alternative to suspensions and expulsions. He saw student behavior successfully change after trying restorative practices in his own classroom when he was a teacher.

He said when he got evaluations, the district’s administration was impressed by how his students listened to and respected him.

“They would say … you have almost no suspensions and fights are to a minimum,” Leonard said. “Over time, it became really clear … this was by far a better way to at least work in a classroom.”

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Alex Klaus is the education solutions reporter for the Milwaukee Neighborhood News Service and a corps member of Report for America, a national service program that places journalists in local newsrooms to report on under-covered issues and communities. Report for America plays no role in editorial decisions in the NNS newsroom.

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Jonathan Aguilar is a visual journalist at Milwaukee Neighborhood News Service who is supported through a partnership between CatchLight Local and Report for America.

US Education Department investigates Milwaukee Public Schools over race-conscious discipline practices is a post from Wisconsin Watch, a non-profit investigative news site covering Wisconsin since 2009. Please consider making a contribution to support our journalism.

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In Milwaukee at H.W. Longfellow School’s Community Learning Center, which is operated by the South Side nonprofit Journey House, staff are always finding new ways to immerse students in art and culture.

To help, Cherise Myers, Journey House director of community partnerships, said the nonprofit utilizes state Child Care Bridge payments to bring in instructors specializing in art, dance, digital media and more.

Now Longfellow and other Milwaukee Public Schools-based before- and after-school programs must grapple with how to continue exposing students who don’t often get exposure to art while losing thousands of dollars in stabilization payments.

“This is kind of putting the nail in the coffin,” Myers said. “Not being able to have the money to contract or work with these opportunities.”

The Child Care Bridge Payments Program was the state’s temporary solution to the federal government sunsetting Child Care Counts, a monthly federal child care stabilization program born out of the pandemic that supported nearly 1,400 child care providers in the city of Milwaukee. 

The Wisconsin Legislature budgeted for a year of Child Care Bridge payments, which ended last month. 

Journey House received over $6,300 from the state in 2026 to support the Longfellow Community Learning Center. About 90 MPS-based before- and after-school programs collectively received $1.2 million in 2025.

Activities to be cut

Milwaukee Recreation, which received Child Care Bridge funding to operate child care as part of its programming at MPS locations, has struggled to attract and retain high-quality staff with competitive wages.

The monthly Child Care Counts and later state Child Care Bridge funding were critical in raising wages and giving employee bonuses, Community Learning Center coordinator Leighton Cooper said. 

Cooper, who coordinates Community Learning Centers through Milwaukee Recreation, said the funding helped staff stay longer at their programs overall.

“It’s causing us less and less to have to go out and find and recruit more and more staff to operate our programs,” he said. 

Now that Child Care Counts and Child Care Bridge payments have ended, Cooper said Milwaukee Recreation may have to cut funding for some supplies and activities, stop giving bonuses and cut staff positions beyond the required ratios from the Wisconsin Department of Children and Families.

“Our staff wages certainly can’t be changed,” Cooper said. “Staff are paid and that’s going to help us to keep staff in spaces.”

Journey House received less funding than other Community Learning Centers, and Myers said the organization already can’t always compete with wages at other schools.  

Myers said the ended funding may not affect new employees who were hired on starting pay, but veteran employees may leave if pay drops. Many already rely on other jobs to make ends meet, she said. 

Still, Myers said the money helped Journey House bring in instructors from local colleges, universities and community organizations to lead activities because those instructors aren’t always free.

Myers said Journey House programming depends on student needs, but the organization runs chess and Lego clubs, flag football, basketball and cheerleading classes, painting and metal classes and more.

500 programs across state losing funds

Across Milwaukee, about 90 MPS-based Community Learning Centers and before- and after-school camps received $1.2 million in 2025, according to Wisconsin Department of Children and Families data. 

Randy Neve, lead of the Wisconsin Out of School Time Alliance, estimates more than 500 before- and after-school programs serving school-aged children statewide are losing monthly stabilization payments. Milwaukee’s MPS-based programs are among them.

Many of the providers who received state and federal stabilization payments were early-childhood centers serving infants and toddlers, NNS reported in June. 

But Neve said these programs, including the ones across MPS, serve thousands of 4- to 12-year-olds. The loss of stabilization payments will affect that population of children and families. 

“In the long run, the kids are the ones that lose out and are hurt,” Neve said.

Push for the state

The state budgeted for one year of Child Care Bridge payments in the biennial budget. 

Legislators including state Sen. LaTonya Johnson, who represents District 6 on Milwaukee’s North Side, proposed SB 322 to support child care providers, but the bill didn’t get a hearing, NNS reported. 

Neve said the Wisconsin Out of School Time Alliance is working with other organizations to advocate for greater funding for before- and after-school programs like the one Journey House hosts at Longfellow. He and other partners are educating policymakers about what the loss of this funding will mean for providers and families. 

Myers said many of the families at Longfellow are already struggling with the rising cost of living, and the loss of stabilization payments will ultimately hurt students and families. 

“Things are tough, and it’s sad to say that this is just going to make things tougher,” Myers said.

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Alex Klaus is the education solutions reporter for the Milwaukee Neighborhood News Service and a corps member of Report for America, a national service program that places journalists in local newsrooms to report on under-covered issues and communities. Report for America plays no role in editorial decisions in the NNS newsroom.

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Jonathan Aguilar is a visual journalist at Milwaukee Neighborhood News Service who is supported through a partnership between CatchLight Local and Report for America.

After-school programs lose thousands each month as child care stabilization funding ends is a post from Wisconsin Watch, a non-profit investigative news site covering Wisconsin since 2009. Please consider making a contribution to support our journalism.

Reading Time: 4 minutes

Every morning, rising senior Chris Hutcherson takes two Milwaukee County Transit System buses to get to Audubon Technology and Communication Center on Milwaukee’s South Side.

Hutcherson said he doesn’t mind his daily commute on MCTS, except when the buses are delayed. If his bus hits traffic, he sometimes misses his transfer.

“Then the 57 don’t come for like a good, good 20 minutes,” Hutcherson said.

Hutcherson is one of about a fifth of Milwaukee Public Schools high schoolers who district officials say ride MCTS buses to school. The district is now deciding on whether to send more students on county buses as part of a transportation system overhaul. 

To hit its transportation budget for the year that began in July 2026, MPS needs to cut roughly $3.5 million, according to figures the administration presented to the school board in June.

MPS Senior Director of Transportation Services David Fifarek said the district will not implement most changes until the 2027-28 school year, to allow for community engagement and to determine which recommendations are most practical.

Betting on the bus

Hutcherson tracks county buses on Google Maps, which he said is the most reliable of the apps he’s tried, though it isn’t foolproof. 

“I was actively watching that app on my phone, and I remember getting on the bus, and it’s saying that it didn’t leave,” Hutcherson said. 

MCTS buses are on time 80% of the time, which, by its definition, is within one minute before or five minutes after the scheduled departure time, according to transit officials. 

Fifarek said students who live more than seven miles from their high school are assigned to MCTS, while those within seven miles typically ride a yellow bus. 

“You can’t have a yellow bus running effectively more than seven miles from starting point to destination without having to run at least an hour long to do it,” Fifarek said.

MCTS buses will likely be most effective for students in high-density areas who can take a bus to school with no transfers, Fifarek said. It also alleviates some safety concerns because students are quickly on and off the bus without having to get off the bus and wait for another one to connect them to school. 

He said things get tricky when students live on the opposite side of town and children have to transfer buses in an area that is unfamiliar to them.

Fifarek described a “tug of war” between MCTS covering more of the city with county buses and running them often enough so riders aren’t stranded waiting for a transfer.

MCTS is weighing that very dilemma as the agency begins its own overhaul of the county bus system to provide efficient service amid a looming budget deficit. 

For the next 12 to 15 months, a spokesperson said MCTS will engage with stakeholders including MPS as part of the MCTS Forward system redesign.

MCTS has already made tough decisions to recover from a $14 million deficit, reducing frequency on routes like Hutcherson’s 57, and running the 55, the main line for commuting Reagan High School students, during peak hours. Midday service has since returned for the 55.

Fifarek said the district’s future plans will largely depend on how MCTS will change its coverage and ride frequency in the next year. 

“If that coverage model changes, then we’re going to have to pivot and then reinstate some yellow buses or some other form of transportation to replace the void that might be created by the county transit system,” Fifarek said.

On July 15, MCTS proposed cutting bus service by 25% in 2027 to address the deficit.

Chronically late

McQuinn Coleman said his yellow bus is late multiple times each school year. When he has too much trouble with the bus, he stays home.

Four other students at Barack Obama School of Career and Technical Education, Lynde and Harry Bradley Technology and Trade School and Milwaukee High School of the Arts said their buses are routinely late in the morning. They sometimes take MCTS buses as a result. 

A district-commissioned analysis by 4MATIV presented at the June board meeting found that 73% of trackable bus trips to MPS are on time. But, looking at all trips, including about a third that have no GPS data, less than half of MPS bus trips could be confirmed as arriving on schedule.

Coleman said he dealt with so many transportation issues that he lost a credit and had to take summer school.

‘On point ever since’

One day, Coleman said he got robbed as he left summer school. 

He said he doesn’t feel safe waiting at stops anymore and stays vigilant on his walks to and from the bus.

“I’ve been on point ever since,” Coleman said. 

Hutcherson said he generally feels safe taking MCTS buses, but he also makes sure to stay aware of his surroundings. 

Other male high school students who spoke to NNS said they feel safe walking to and from their stop and waiting for the bus.

Students like Coleman are the ones School Board Director Darryl Jackson thinks the district should consider when forming a transportation plan. 

He said cost saving measures are important, but safety shouldn’t be overlooked in favor of cost. 

“Currently, a lot of adults don’t want to walk through certain neighborhoods,” Jackson said. “We got to keep that in mind with having our students walk through certain areas.” 

Fifarek said safety is one of the biggest concerns as MPS reviews the recommendations and overhauls the district transportation system.

The report presented to the school board in June estimates $11 million in savings if the district consolidated stops, for example. But Fifarek said implementing such a step by only considering distance could potentially send young children crossing busy streets like Capitol Drive or Fond du Lac Avenue.  

“Eleven million dollars of savings in stop consolidation would have to completely wipe out this concept of no cross streets,” Fifarek said. “You might create some safety issues and risks in the process.”

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Alex Klaus is the education solutions reporter for Milwaukee Neighborhood News Service and a corps member of Report for America, a national service program that places journalists in local newsrooms to report on under-covered issues and communities. Report for America plays no role in editorial decisions in the NNS newsroom.

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Jonathan Aguilar is a visual journalist at Milwaukee Neighborhood News Service who is supported through a partnership between CatchLight Local and Report for America.

Milwaukee Public Schools weighs sending more students on county buses to cut transportation costs is a post from Wisconsin Watch, a non-profit investigative news site covering Wisconsin since 2009. Please consider making a contribution to support our journalism.

WASHINGTON — U.S. House Democratic Leader Hakeem Jeffries rallied a key group for his party Thursday, telling the American Federation of Teachers’ national convention that, if successful in November’s midterm elections, a Democratic majority in the House would pursue several progressive policies. 

The New York congressman addressed affordability, voting rights and what he called “the most corrupt administration in American history” while drawing personal connections to the conventiongoers. He said he was grateful for the work of public employees and the unions that represent them, having been raised by two union members in a modest-income household. 

“Organized labor has always been there for me, and organized labor is there for the American people,” Jeffries said as the crowd, gathered in a large room at the Walter. E. Washington Convention Center, erupted into applause. 

The AFT is a 1.8 million-member union representing educators, healthcare workers and public employees from across the country. The organization hosts a national convention every two years.

The union is a major benefactor to Democrats. Its political action committee contributed more than $1.9 million to Democratic candidates and $2.1 million to the House Majority PAC, which works with House Democratic leadership, in the 2024 election cycle, according to the campaign finance tracker Open Secrets. 

Jeffries urged the union’s members to help Democrats win enough House races in November to return the party to the majority next year. Jeffries would very likely become House speaker if that happens.

“Are we going to take our country back?” Jeffries asked the crowd to open his address. “Are you ready to help us take back control of the United States House of Representatives in November?”

Campaign promises

Jeffries said House Democrats would push back against “MAGA extremists” and block efforts to undermine popular programs such as Social Security and Medicare. And they will continue working to drive down the cost of childcare, healthcare and other household expenses, he added. 

In addition to promising better living conditions for Americans, Jeffries said Democratic leaders would fight to “clean up corruption” within President Donald Trump’s administration. 

He also said they would work to end the war with Iran and rein in Immigration and Customs Enforcement initiatives, because the agency “is completely and totally out of control.” 

ICE officers have fatally shot immigrants this month in two separate incidents in Maine and Texas.

Spotlight on education

Sen. Raphael Warnock, a Georgia Democrat, also spoke at the convention about the significant effect that public education had on him growing up.  

It was thanks to the support of his parents and public school teachers, as well as the help of Pell grants and student loans, that he was able to become a U.S. senator, he said. 

Now, what “keeps (him) up at night” is the fact that many children today don’t have access to the same opportunities, which he said would shrink the pool of future leaders in science, law and education.

“We have to invest in our children because we don’t know where the cure for cancer’s going to come from,” he said. 

He called for an increase in teachers’ pay, among other policies.

State of the union

AFT President Randi Weingarten also delivered her keynote address Thursday, touching on themes ranging from income inequality to the increasing power of big tech. 

“Our union stands at the intersection of the ways that regular people gain and exercise power in our democracy—through public education, unions and voting,” she said. “This election will decide whether we are a country governed by the people or ruled by the powerful, a country of opportunity or oligarchy, a country whose people live in freedom or in fear.” 

On Wednesday, Republicans from the U.S. House Committee on Education and the Workforce took a first step toward dismantling the Department of Education, approving a package of 10 bills that would permanently reallocate some of the department’s duties to other federal bodies. 

“The House and Senate have less responsibility for public schooling than statehouses across the country,” Weingarten told reporters after her speech. “Yet the people who run the House (Education and) Workforce Committee spend more time fighting teachers and fighting unions and fighting against a better life for all of us … than actually helping kids have opportunity in a capitalist system.”

WASHINGTON — President Donald Trump’s pick to lead the Labor Department on Thursday defended the agency’s major role in a broader drive by the administration to dismantle the Education Department.  

Grilled by U.S. Senate Democrats, acting Labor Secretary Keith Sonderling stood behind the multiple interagency agreements, or IAAs, Education has so far signed with Labor, likening his agency’s functions in the transfer to a “firm that’s just consulting and helping them move these programs’ money, but not the actual programs themselves.” 

The agreements — also made with the departments of Health and Human Services, State, Treasury, Interior and Justice — are a main part of the plan by the Trump administration to axe the 46-year-old Education Department. 

Sonderling appeared before the Senate Committee on Health, Education, Labor and Pensions in his bid to serve as the next Labor secretary, where he touted his extensive DOL experience.   

“Few people have had the opportunity to experience the department from so many different perspectives, from the outside in private practice, as a policy adviser, as an agency head, as an adjunct professor, as deputy secretary, as acting secretary, and now as the nominee for Labor secretary,” he said. “These experiences have prepared me to lead this department with a deep understanding of its mission, its people, and most importantly, the Americans we serve.” 

The Floridian took on the role as acting secretary in April, after Lori Chavez-DeRemer resigned amid misconduct allegations. 

Sonderling was also named by the president in June to serve as acting director of the U.S. Office of Government Ethics and confirmed by the Senate in March 2025 as deputy Labor secretary. 

The committee will vote July 23 on whether to advance Sonderling’s nomination to the full Senate. 

‘It makes zero sense’

At the hearing, a handful of Democrats dug into the Trump administration’s continued dismantling of the Education Department and Labor’s role regarding several of Education’s programs. 

“Right now, you are working with (Education) Secretary (Linda) McMahon to take over the Department of Education programs to help Trump abolish that department,” said Sen. Patty Murray, D-Wash., who noted that Sonderling has built his “own anti-worker record at DOL.” 

Murray pointed out that “it makes zero sense that DOL, an agency whose expertise is in supporting wage earners and job seekers, is being tasked now with taking over complex education programs from the Department of Education to help kindergartners and elementary school students.” 

Through multiple IAAs, the Department of Labor is taking on expanded roles in administering Education’s programs surrounding elementary and secondary education; postsecondary education; and career, technical and adult education. 

The Education Department has stressed in fact sheets that it would maintain its statutory responsibilities and oversight of the programs regarding the IAAs.

In the lower chamber, a package of 10 bills permanently transferring several of Education’s functions to other departments and largely reflecting many of the earlier IAAs advanced out of the House Committee on Education and Workforce on Wednesday.

Programs still run by ‘career experts’

Sonderling stood behind the administration’s efforts, saying “it makes a lot of sense” for DOL to handle more grant responsibilities and work with Education.

The nominee also emphasized that the interagency agreements are “not dealing with policy,” but instead with providing the Department of Education “a service.” 

Sen. Tammy Baldwin, a Wisconsin Democrat, said the Trump administration’s scattering of education programs across the federal government, including at DOL, creates a system that’s “much more complicated and much less efficient, particularly for states and public school districts.” 

But Sonderling argued that those programs “still all remain” at the Education Department and are “being run by career experts” at Education.

He added that “for efficiency purposes, we’ve moved a few tranches of employees to the Frances Perkins Building (DOL’s headquarters), where they all have their own offices, they all have their own computers, they have parking, and they are working out of that building.”  

Pressed by Baldwin on any evidence the nominee will present that “transferring these programs to the Department of Labor has made anything better for students, teachers, parents,” Sonderling expressed his commitment to providing the senator with that data. 

“There’s a right way to do reform — come to the committee and say, ‘Hey, look, this is in statute but there’s a better way to do it, so let’s work on a better way to do it,’” said Sen. Tim Kaine.

“The wrong way to do it is to treat the (Education Department) like it’s a furniture store and having a discount going out of business sale and hand off pieces willy-nilly to agencies that don’t have the expertise to deal with them,” the Virginia Democrat said. 

“That’s my concern about what’s happening right now.” 

WASHINGTON — A major legislative package that would put into law President Donald Trump’s push to greatly reduce the responsibilities of the U.S. Department of Education advanced out of a U.S. House panel on Wednesday. 

The U.S. House Committee on Education and Workforce approved — nearly along party lines — each of the package’s 10 bills that would permanently transfer several of Education’s functions to other departments. 

The measure, largely reflecting many of the interagency agreements, or IAAs, Education has signed with other agencies, signifies a sweeping effort from Republicans in Congress to carry out the Trump administration’s plan to do away with the 46-year-old department as part of the president’s quest to return education “back to the states.” 

That drive continues, though much of the oversight and funding of schools already occurs at the state and local levels.

But the legislation faces an uncertain fate. Even if passed in the full U.S. House down the line, it would face steep odds in the narrowly GOP-controlled Senate. 

The upper chamber requires at least 60 senators to advance a bill past the filibuster, and Republicans hold just 53 seats.

Rep. Tim Walberg, chair of the House panel, lauded the package as the “first step toward ending the Department of Education’s reign over our nation’s education system,” during his panel’s markup. 

The Michigan Republican added that the legislation advances Trump and Education Secretary Linda McMahon’s “vision for an education system that empowers families, students, workers and local communities.” 

McMahon said “today marks a major step by Congressional leaders to cement the Trump Administration’s historic reforms to right-size the federal role in education,” in a statement after the package advanced out of the committee. 

Other departments to take over

Under multiple bills, the Department of Labor would manage Education’s programs surrounding elementary and secondary education; postsecondary education; and career, technical and adult education — mirroring earlier IAAs. 

In another piece of legislation, the Treasury Department would manage Education’s federal student aid functions, a nod to a March agreement Education signed with Treasury to take over its responsibility for collecting on defaulted federal student loan debt.

That agreement marked the first step in a multiphase process toward Treasury taking on Education’s entire roughly $1.7 trillion federal student loan portfolio.

Under other bills in the package, the State Department would manage Education’s international education and foreign language studies programs, as well as its foreign gift and contract reporting — also mirroring earlier agreements. 

Reflecting additional IAAs, the Department of Health and Human Services would manage Education’s accreditation for foreign medical schools; functions regarding child care access for low-income parents in postsecondary education; and family engagement programs for elementary and secondary education. 

The Interior Department would also manage tribal education and job training programs under the package. 

Notably, the 10-bill package does not include any efforts to transfer Education’s responsibilities regarding special education programs and civil rights enforcement to other agencies. 

In perhaps the Trump administration’s most far-reaching attempts yet to dismantle the Education Department, the agency in June said HHS will administer programs under the Education’s Office of Special Education and Rehabilitative Services, while civil rights enforcement under its Office for Civil Rights, or OCR, will be transferred to the Department of Justice. 

Rep. Bobby Scott, the top Democrat on the panel, said that the committee’s move to not consider either of the two actions in the package was possibly because “even my colleagues recognize how politically unpalatable such transfers would be.” 

‘Pain and suffering’

Meanwhile, the legislative package drew fierce pushback from congressional Democrats on the committee, who offered up a slew of amendments to the bills in an attempt to block the dismantling. 

Scott, a Virginia Democrat, said “it’s difficult to articulate how impractical these proposals are, to say nothing of the pain and suffering they’ll inflict on students, educators and their communities, if they were to become law.” 

He pointed to the GOP’s objective of stripping down the department as part of its intent to “return education to the states,” saying these proposals “will actually contribute to the creation of miles of bureaucratic red tape, inconsistent education policy and enforcement across the federal government and a significant waste of the taxpayers’ money.” 

Rep. Suzanne Bonamici said the bills under consideration “demonstrate that Republicans in Congress know that the Department of Education lacks the authority to transfer offices and programs to other federal agencies without congressional action, and are now trying to cover for the unlawful actions already taken.” 

The Oregon Democrat, who introduced an impeachment resolution against McMahon in June, added that the secretary “has said that it is her mission to shut down the Department of Education, something she does not have the authority to do, but that is exactly what she is doing, disguised as a series of interagency agreements.”