The Trump administration’s efforts to dismantle the U.S. Department of Education (DoE) are deeply concerning and could have devastating consequences for students, families, and schools across the country. The DoE provides access to free quality education, protects students’ and families’ civil rights, supports special education programs, grants for low-income families who want to pursue higher education, and financial assistance for low-income schools in impoverished areas. Students and families who receive support to attend college could lose Pell Grants or federal student loans.  In California, 800,000 special education students depend on federal funding to access the resources they need to thrive in public schools. (Read more about the role of the Department of Education here.)  

On Tuesday, the Trump administration announced massive cuts to the Department of Education, laying off more than half of its workforce and shutting down over half of the regional branches of the Office of Civil Rights, responsible for ensuring that schools follow federal anti-discrimination laws. This decision threatens fundamental rights of millions of students at risk, particularly special education students, students of color, and LGBTQIA+ students. California alone has over 700 pending cases with the Office for Civil Rights. 

Trump is sending a message to America that we don’t support children, students, and working-class families. The broader implications and possible consequences of federal cuts, if state and federal elected leaders do not intervene, cannot be ignored. They are meant to destabilize and disproportionately harm marginalized communities, including BIPOC students, LGBTQIA+ individuals, and students with disabilities.  

To echo the words of our fellow educators and union siblings of Chicago Teachers Union: “Wealthy men with power — the oligarchs — starve public institutions that provide opportunities and support to historically marginalized Americans. Whether or not it is legal to gut the U.S. Department of Education (DoE), that’s exactly what Trump and his troops are doing. They are sowing chaos to dismantle the equity and justice that organized people have won over time. [They] don’t like the availability of resources for Black and Brown students, for our LGBTQIA+ siblings, or for students with disabilities so they are gutting them. Then they use the diminished capacity of our public institutions as justification to shut them down completely. This is recognizable — that’s the playbook education deform has used against public schools in communities of color for the past 40 years.”  

Across the country, people are already taking action against these reckless right-wing attacks on public education. As we learn more, we will join educators nationwide in fighting back. Already, both of our national affiliates, American Federation of Teachers and National Education Association, have filed lawsuits, as well as parents and, as of yesterday, twenty states, including California. 

Here in Los Angeles, the district remains in a strong financial position, and just this week the school board passed a resolution standing against federal cuts. While the district’s CFO anticipates 7-8% of the general fund revenues will come from federal sources over the next two years, the district continues to project billions in reserves that equal 583% of next year’s projected federal funding. He also noted that no immediate reductions in federal funding have been identified, and the district is closely monitoring the situation.  

These cuts aren’t just bureaucratic — they have real consequences for our schools and communities. Now is the time to invest in our students, not cut funds for our neighborhood public schools.  By continuing to advocate here in Los Angeles for equitable funding, protecting civil rights, and ensuring that every student has access to quality education through our Win Our Future contract campaign we are pushing back against these harmful policies.