#student aid

The executive order to freeze federal aid funding was recinded after widespread interdepartmental confusion and pushback by government agencies across the country, international agencies, and citizen outrage.

"All that is required for tyranny is that good people do nothing"; but the inverse is also true. When people make enough noise, we can get Trump and would-be-Trumps to back down for fear of loss of power.

Do not comply in advance. Do not lose hope. Resist, resist, resist!

Vetted by @/gazavetters at line #138

HELP Akram and Malek Rebuild Their future outside of Gaza.

Right now, they are studying for online exams, struggling to stay diligent in the face of hunger, cold, and devastation. This gives them little time to campaign on their own behalf

Fundraiser by Saleel Aldwake : HELP AKRAM REBUILD HIS FUTURE OUTSIDE OF GAZA

again, Vetted by @/gazavetters at line #138

Knifemetaphor, a tumblr user who is friends with Akram is selling art to help pay for the campaign

"If parents call colleges freaked about their FAFSA data being leaked, schools may have to issue statements — which would reach a whole lot more families about how warped this is.

Organizing isn’t always calling electeds. Sometimes it’s just calling people with a bigger megaphone."

“…I’ll be forced to stop studying after every effort I've been putting into finishing my thesis despite all the chaos surrounding us. Please, if you can help with any amount or share this, you could save my future.”

Consider donating to his family’s PayPal. (type “To Ahmed” in the notes to indicate it’s for college) Education is his way of resisting occupation, but he needs help to reach his goal!

Jay Kuo at The Big Picture:

One of the most historically consequential rulings of the Supreme Court came down yesterday. But you wouldn’t know it from the order itself. That’s because it comes to us again off the Supreme Court’s so-called “Shadow Docket,” which the radical majority of justices has wielded to horrifying effect. All we get is a decision, without explanation, and we must rely upon the dissent (once more, of the three liberal justices) to try to parse what just happened. And what just happened was this: The White House has been trying to destroy the Department of Education since Trump first took office. But doing so outright would be contrary to law. So instead, the White House is demolishing it from within by firing half of the people who work there, rendering it incapable of performing many of its most basic responsibilities. And through its unsigned, unexplained order, SCOTUS just allowed that process to continue. How it’s doing so takes a bit of explanation and some understanding of how things are supposed to work. So let’s start there, and then we can grasp how the extremists upended it without even explaining the why, the what or the how.

Only Congress can eliminate the Department of Education

As a refresher, the Education Department’s roles and responsibilities include distributing federal student aid, investigating civil rights violations, providing funding to low-income schools, and ensuring public education for children with disabilities. Contrary to popular misconception, the Education Department does not do any actual “educating” of students; that is still the purview of the states. [...]

Litigation halts layoffs, reinstates employees

A group of 20 blue states plus the District of Columbia sued the Department, arguing that the force reductions had effectively dismantled the Department by incapacitating it from “performing functions mandated by statute.” Another suit followed, this one from a group of school districts and unions challenging McMahon’s March 11 directive and Trump’s Executive Order. After the district court consolidated these cases, the plaintiffs all sought preliminary injunctions. Those injunctions are critical to the success of the case. Most importantly, they freeze the status quo so that the plaintiffs aren’t harmed merely by the passage of time. The plaintiffs submitted dozens of affidavits explaining the harm from the layoffs and how they were already affecting critical services that depend on the timely distribution of funds. Against this, the government offered no evidence, other than to reassert that the executive branch has the power to streamline its own departments.

The district court granted a preliminary injunction, finding that the government’s true intention “is to effectively dismantle the Department without an authorizing statute,” and that the terminations would prevent the Department from “carry[ing] out its statutory functions.” The court further determined that the Department had acted arbitrarily and capriciously in violation of the Administrative Procedure Act by failing to provide reasonable explanations for the terminations.

[...] The Trump regime quickly appealed to the First Circuit, requesting that it pause the court’s employee reinstatement order. The panel refused, chastising the government for “not even attempt[ing] to engage with the District Court’s record based findings” on the force reduction, “the intent behind both it and the transfer of functions to shut down the Department,” or “the disabling impact of those actions on the Department’s ability to carry out statutorily assigned functions.” The appellate panel also took note that the plaintiffs faced serious irreparable harm from the “Department’s inability to provide its statutorily mandated services.” That’s when the Trump White House sought help from the Supreme Court.

Letting the White House burn it down

On Monday, through yet another single-paragraph, unsigned order, the Supreme Court’s majority granted the White House’s request for a stay of the district court’s reinstatement order on the fired Department of Education employees. In plainer terms, this means the Court agreed that the firings could continue even if they ultimately are found to be unlawful. This gets the whole purpose of a preliminary injunction backward. And it will be nearly impossible to unwind the damage once the consequences of those firings become permanent. [...]

Devastating consequences

Based on its actions, we should presume that the Court is fully prepared to give a blank check to the White House to conduct reductions in force, not only in the Education Department, but across the entire federal government. Along the way, the Court is not going to tell us why this is permitted. It’s only going to put its finger on the scale for Trump in pretty much all cases. Laid-off federal workers whose cases were on hold will now be let go permanently. This will lead to more gaps in services, the inability of those remaining to cover the shortfalls, and a government-wide deterioration in what services are provided. The right-wing, Project 2025-driven ideology that “government doesn’t work” will ultimately become self-fulfilling because there won’t be enough people remaining in our federal workforce to operate it effectively. Government won’t work because they broke it. Those federal employees who remain will be demoralized, overworked and looking for the exits.

Tell your friends.

Tell your enemies.

Tell everyone.