Dear MoveOn member,
Public education in this country is under attack. And Trump has already made clear his intentions to undermine public education even further at every turn—including the extreme proposal to completely eliminate the Department of Education (DOE).
“One other thing I’ll be doing very early in the administration is closing up the Department of Education,” Trump stated back in 2023, warning that he would be “sending all education and education work and needs back to the states.”1
And in preparation for Trump’s second presidency, conservative, anti-public-education organizations like the American Culture Project are pushing for abolishing the Department of Education to be a priority. Elon Musk and Vivek Ramaswamy, who will be heading the new “Department of Government Efficiency,” seem to be on board.2 And just weeks after the election, a Republican senator introduced legislation to dismantle the DOE.3
There are checks and balances in our democracy, and our elected officials are still beholden to their constituents. Trump can’t eliminate a federal department without approval from Congress. We have to take action NOW to make it clear to our elected officials that they cannot allow the Department of Education to be abolished.
Tell Congress: Block any attempts by the Trump administration to eliminate the Department of Education!
Protecting students from discrimination.
Funding schools with high low-income student populations.
Bolstering school programs that support students with disabilities.
Administering federal student loans.
Collecting data and reporting out on schools across the country.
Working toward equal access to education.
That’s the role of the Department of Education and what’s at risk if Trump is successful in abolishing the DOE.
And he won’t stop there. Project 2025 has an entire section focused on reshaping—or, more accurately, dismantling—our public education system and a plan to drain all of our resources to reroute to private education. The plan not only includes eliminating the DOE but also getting rid of teachers unions, ending federal funding, and gutting any programs that support equity and inclusion, even free school lunch programs and Head Start.4
K-12 public schools are massively underfunded by more than $150 BILLION annually—meaning educators are continually asked to do more for less, as their own wages stagnate.5 And it’s the 30 million students in these underfunded districts that pay the price long-term.6 This “opportunity gap,” as it’s called, affects Black children disproportionately, who are three times more likely to reside in districts that are “chronically underfunded.”7
By sending education “back to the states,” Trump will be worsening existing inequities in our public education system. Everyone deserves to have access to a quality education—regardless of who they are or where they live. We have to fight for the future of our children’s education. We have to fight to protect the DOE.
Thanks for all you do.
–Aliya, Kelsey, Nita, Toni, and the rest of the team
Sources:
1. “What Trump’s pledge to close Dept. of Education means for students, GOP-led states,” NPR, November 15, 2024
https://www.npr.org/2024/11/14/nx-s1-5181966/a-look-at-the-potential-impact-of-shutting-down-the-department-of-education
2. Ibid.
3. “Republican senator introduces bill to abolish US Department of Education,” The Guardian, November 27, 2024
https://www.theguardian.com/us-news/2024/nov/27/republican-bill-abolish-department-of-education
4. “How Project 2025 Would Devastate Public Education,” NEA Today, October 4, 2024
https://www.nea.org/nea-today/all-news-articles/how-project-2025-would-devastate-public-education
5. “TCF Study Finds U.S. Schools Underfunded by Nearly $150 Billion Annually,” The Century Foundation, July 22, 2020
https://tcf.org/content/about-tcf/tcf-study-finds-u-s-schools-underfunded-nearly-150-billion-annually/6. Ibid.
7. “For Black Kids, Underfunded Public Schools Are Inequality Factories,” The Atlanta Voice, February 1, 2024
https://theatlantavoice.com/black-education-funding-gap/
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