The nation’s leading faculty advocacy organization is pushing back hard against the Trump administration’s decision to move two of the Department of Education’s most consequential functions to other federal agencies, calling the restructuring a “catastrophic attack on higher education.”
The American Association of University Professors (AAUP) and the American Federation of Teachers (AFT) issued a joint statement following the announcement that the administration plans to shift oversight of special education programs to the Department of Health and Human Services and transfer civil rights enforcement responsibilities to the Department of Justice.
AAUP President Todd Wolfson and AFT President Randi Weingarten did not mince words. “The Trump administration’s continued gutting of the Department of Education is a catastrophic attack on higher education,” they wrote. “By scattering vital student protections across multiple bureaucratic agencies that are entirely unequipped to handle them, this administration is actively sabotaging the future of American college students.”
The statement takes particular aim at the transfer of the Office for Civil Rights to the Justice Department, arguing that an agency that has in recent months appeared preoccupied with pursuing the administration’s political adversaries is ill-suited to protect students from discrimination. The OCR has historically served as the primary federal mechanism for investigating complaints related to sexual harassment, racial discrimination, disability, and other civil rights violations on campus.
Wolfson and Weingarten argue the administration has already distorted the OCR’s original purpose, using it as a tool to pressure universities over diversity initiatives, freeze campus speech, and target transgender athletes — while investigations into racial harassment have slowed dramatically. Moving OCR into the DOJ’s orbit, they contend, will only accelerate that drift. “The Civil Rights Act of 1964 — passed after years of nonviolent civil disobedience against racial injustice — is now being used to squash political dissent and student speech at colleges and universities,” the statement reads.
On the special education side, the unions warn that relocating OSERS to HHS will create new barriers for postsecondary students who rely on campus accessibility services and assistive technology — services guaranteed to them under federal law. The concern echoes criticism from disability rights advocates cited in this publication’s earlier reporting, including a former OSERS employee who warned that reduced federal oversight could leave disabled students’ legal protections effectively unenforced.
Education Secretary Linda McMahon has framed the moves as a sensible streamlining of federal services, arguing the changes will produce stronger civil rights enforcement and better outcomes for people with disabilities. The administration has described the arrangements as “partnerships” rather than outright transfers, though officials have offered few specifics about how existing staff or ongoing investigations will be affected.
Wolfson and Weingarten are not buying that framing. The statement closes with a pledge to fight the changes alongside parents, K-12 educators, and other allies, with the goal of reversing course and building what they describe as “a strong, just and accessible system of higher education that benefits our nation.”
The restructuring announcement came alongside news that Indiana has become the third state to receive a federal waiver allowing it to consolidate education funding streams with fewer compliance requirements — another step in what McMahon has called a broader effort to return control of education to states and local leaders.
