Department of Education

Federal Judge Rules Trump Administration Violated First Amendment by Forcing Partisan Auto-Reply Messages on Federal Employees

| Importance: 8/10

U.S. District Judge Christopher Cooper ruled that the Trump administration violated the First Amendment by commandeering Education Department employees’ email accounts to send partisan messages blaming Democrats for the government shutdown. The automated responses stated that the House passed …

Christopher Cooper Department of Education American Federation of Government Employees first-amendment civil-service government-shutdown judicial-rebuke partisan-abuse
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Education Department Faces 50% Workforce Reduction

| Importance: 8/10

Education Secretary Linda McMahon initiates 50% workforce reduction while administration pushes legislation to completely abolish Department of Education, directly implementing Project 2025’s recommendation to eliminate the department entirely.

Linda McMahon Department of Education Federal education workforce education-dismantling department-elimination workforce-cuts federal-education
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Federal Judge Holds DeVos in Contempt for Illegally Collecting on Corinthian Loans - $100K Fine

| Importance: 9/10

U.S. Magistrate Judge Sallie Kim held Education Secretary Betsy DeVos in civil contempt of court on October 24, 2019, for violating a preliminary injunction barring the Department of Education from collecting on loans from 16,000 former Corinthian Colleges students and fined the Department $100,000. …

Betsy DeVos Sallie Kim Department of Education contempt-of-court betsy-devos student-debt corinthian-colleges rule-of-law
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DeVos Replaces Full Debt Relief With Earnings-Based Formula - Corinthian Victims Get Pennies on Dollar

| Importance: 8/10

On December 21, 2017, Secretary Betsy DeVos announced a radical departure from Obama administration policy by implementing an earnings-based formula for Corinthian Colleges debt relief that denied full forgiveness to fraud victims and calculated partial relief based on post-graduation earnings. …

Betsy DeVos Department of Education student-debt regulatory-capture betsy-devos corinthian-colleges
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Federal Government Cuts Off Corinthian Colleges - 72,000 Students Trapped by Fraud

| Importance: 8/10

The U.S. Department of Education imposed a 21-day hold on all federal aid flowing to Corinthian Colleges on June 12, 2014, after the for-profit chain—operating as Everest College, WyoTech, and Heald College—refused to provide documentation substantiating falsified job placement rates. The action …

Department of Education Corinthian Colleges Arne Duncan for-profit-colleges student-debt fraud corinthian-colleges
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Armstrong Williams Paid 40K for Illegal Government Propaganda

| Importance: 7/10

The Department of Education violated federal law by paying conservative commentator Armstrong Williams 40,000 through Ketchum Inc. PR firm to promote the No Child Left Behind Act without disclosing the government funding to audiences. Williams regularly promoted NCLB on his syndicated TV and radio …

Armstrong Williams Rod Paige Department of Education Ketchum Inc Maggie Gallagher propaganda media-manipulation nclb armstrong-williams gao
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