The Trump administration has won a court battle to gut the Department of Education as the president prepares to celebrate his birthday military parade. 

A Maryland federal court declined to block a sweeping round of layoffs at the Institute of Education Sciences (IES) - a quiet but crucial arm of the Department of Education that gathers and analyzes data on how American schools are performing. 

In April, two groups representing education researchers sued the government, claiming the Department had recklessly slashed 90 per cent of IES staff, canceled major research contracts, and put decades of valuable data at risk. 

They asked the court to reinstate the workers, revive the contracts, and stop any data from being destroyed. 

But Judge Stephanie Gallagher ruled against them, at least for now, saying the lawsuit was too broad, lacked hard evidence, and didn't clearly show any direct harm.