AFT Massachusetts Brings National ‘Protect Our Kids’ Day of Action to Districts Throughout the Commonwealth (March 4, 2025)
Closed out with virtual town hall on what is at stake for students, schools, and educators under Trump agenda
Education leaders, parents, teachers, activists, and students around the country participated in over 2,000 events across the country as part of the American Federation of Teachers (AFT)'s nationwide day of action yesterday, calling out the Trump Administration’s dangerous education agenda for what it is – widespread cuts impacting every district in the nation, cruelly target the most vulnerable students, and eliminating jobs both students and working families rely on, all to fund tax cuts for billionaires like Elon Musk.
The American Federation of Teachers Massachusetts brought that message to communities across the state – from Pittsfield to Salem – as part of the national AFT’s “Protect Our Kids” Day of Action. Teachers, paraprofessionals, therapists, custodians, and other public school employees hosted events as part of the day of action to not only raise awareness of how dangerous the education plan from the White House is for Massachusetts, but to stand united in support of the children and students of Massachusetts.
“Programs funded by the Department of Education are more than just line items the White House can take a red pen to. There are real faces to these programs. Real children who will be hurt. Babies who will be denied Early Intervention services. Kids with disabilities and special needs who will no longer have their right to a fair and equal education met. Children from low-income families will lose access to critical assistance that provides them with the materials and resources they need in their classrooms,” said AFT Massachusetts President Jessica Tang. “The gutting of federal funds and programs will result in fewer opportunities for all students and make our schools less safe and less welcoming. We stand to lose generations of kids who will never have the opportunity to reach their full potential if the Trump Administration is able to implement their agenda and our country, as a whole, will have to deal with the consequences.”
To close out the day, the AFT Massachusetts hosted a virtual Town Hall covering exactly what this means for Massachusetts, featuring local and national education leaders, advocates focused on education and workforce equity, and parents and students living through the uncertainty every day of what a Trump education agenda means for them, their schools, and their community.
Over 500 educators, parents, community leaders, and concerned residents joined the Town Hall discussion, asking questions about how these threats and cuts would impact their child or school - with concerns ranging from those with children on 504 Plans or IEPs to advocates worried about the impacts this will have on adult education and workforce development.
“For decades, schools and districts across the nation have counted on the U.S. Department of Education to provide the funding and support necessary to deliver a quality public education that meets the needs of their students. Any attempts to dismantle the Department of Education would be devastating for our schools, our educators, and our kids,” said Erik Berg, President of the Boston Teachers Union. “In Boston, it means losing thousands of educators our students rely on. It means decimating the programs that provide services to over 12,000 students with disabilities and over 36,000 low-income students to ensure they have the ability to meet their full potential inside and outside the classroom. It means shrinking our next generation of workers by cutting funding that supports our vocational schools. It means stripping jobs from working families, making it much harder for our educators, especially our paraprofessionals, to live with dignity and put food on the table. Trump’s cruel agenda would be catastrophic for our city’s students and educators and there’s no telling how long it would take for cities like Boston to recover.”
“While we don’t know all the details behind their efforts to dismantle the Department of Education, we are starting to see the actions and steps they’re taking. It is not the agency that controls what schools teach kids and how they teach that - that is a local and state responsibility,” said Mary Cathryn Ricker, Executive Director of the Albert Shanker Institute. “Resources to enrich the lives of students living in poverty or help a student with disabilities thrive - those are thanks to funding from the Department of Education. On a great day teaching, you don't feel it around you. But, if it goes away, our educators and our students are going to miss it.”
“While the Trump administration seeks to undermine public education through threats to our students and educators, and by seeking to privatize this essential public good, Massachusetts educators across the state took the time today to stand up and stand out for the kinds of schools our students need and deserve,” said Max Page, President of the Massachusetts Teachers Association. “Massachusetts, the home of the finest public education system in the nation, cannot and will not be intimidated into acting against our values. Educators, community advocates and elected officials will keep standing together to protect our public schools, colleges and universities.”
Below are some examples of what the Trump/Musk education agenda would mean for Massachusetts students:
- $297 million in Title I funding for schools serving high rates of low-income students, providing additional resources and support to 385,000 children in Massachusetts from low-income families;
- $363 million in funding through the Individuals with Disabilities Education Act (IDEA) for things like speech therapy, reading supports, and other services to ensure 182,000 Massachusetts students with disabilities have access to a fair and equal education;
- Services to ensure over 41,000 babies and toddlers enrolled in Early Intervention are able to meet developmental milestones and access early education every year would be at risk;
- Critical programs like extended learning time, after school, summer school, parental support programs – which students and families across the state rely on - could disappear;
- Jeopardizes the future of over 120,000 Massachusetts higher ed students receiving Pell grants, while gutting federal student loans – putting up significant barriers to higher education for working-class families across the state and the over one million Massachusetts students who rely on this aid; and
- Strips $37 million from career technical education, which would have significant impacts on our future workforce, closing the door to good-paying, stable employment straight out of high school.
Schools across the state will also be forced to deal with ballooning classroom sizes as the salaries of many educators are covered by federal funding. For example, in Lynn Public Schools, 61 teaching positions are funded by Title I, while 95 educators (23 teachers and 72 paraprofessionals) have their positions funded through IDEA.
“Donald Trump, Elon Musk, and their cabal of corporate billionaires are dismantling and intimidating the people running the very agencies meant to support Americans and keep them safe. Now they are coming for our kids’ education. Billionaire Linda McMahon has one goal at the Department of Education - destroying it,” said Massachusetts AFL-CIO President Chrissy Lynch. “The breakup of the DOE will lead to larger class sizes, closed schools, and greater disadvantages for students in communities with less resources. Our unions will defend the rights of all students. We will work with community partners to fight back against Trump’s unfair and unconstitutional attacks, so together we can fight for all students to have access to the education they deserve.”
In addition to education leaders and experts, the Town Hall featured remarks from people who would be directly impacted, including parents and two high school students from Lynn Classical High School, Brian Ramos and Dania De La Cruz. Both students spoke about their concerns not only of the plans for public education and the harm they will cause, but also their fear that those in power continue to leave them out of the discussions and actions around things that will shape their lives for decades to come.
“We wake up every day trying to give our kids the best shot at success. Education is the key to their future so what happens when the support they rely on starts disappearing? We've been fighting for more and, instead of getting what our kids need, we’re now being told to prepare for less,” said Suleika Soto, a Boston Public Schools parent and Co-Chair of the Citywide Parent Council. “Parents of multilingual learners and kids with special needs – who already struggle – will have fewer bilingual educators and fewer services. They will have to fight harder to make sure their kids don’t fall behind - not because they aren’t capable but because the supports they need and have a right to are disappearing.”
All of this comes as the President is attempting to make public schools the latest battleground in his effort to strip rights and protections away from millions, including, but not limited to:
- Eliminating protections for transgender students in K-12 schools;
- Restricting instruction related to race, gender, and other topics in K-12 schools; and
- Removing protected sensitive locations—such as schools, hospitals, and churches—from Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) operations, giving ICE agents power to undertake deportation at these locations, causing many children to feel unsafe in their classrooms;
“Despite being a leader in education, we are dealing with pandemic learning losses and a widening of the educational opportunity gap. Addressing those issues requires support, a commitment to equity and funding not just from our local and state government, but our federal government as well,” said Leon Smith, Executive Director of Citizens for Juvenile Justice. “Instead of support, those in this Federal Administration have been moving with intent to dehumanize our children, especially those who are LGBTQ, of color and from immigrant backgrounds, threatening to implement policies that will leave them behind and hamper their future. They want opportunity to exist only for those who come from means or who reflect their bigoted, narrow vision of who is deserving. They fully understand that education is a pathway to financial stability and breaking the bonds of multigenerational poverty, and they want to upend that. They understand that teaching real history that uplifts the contributions of those from all cultures inspires children from diverse backgrounds to reach for the stars, and they want to stop that. This Administration wants to dismantle those pipelines and pathways, ones that changed my life, and I take that personally and I am ready to fight to keep those opportunities for future generations.”
Prior to the Town Hall, events were held in over 75 Massachusetts school districts by AFT Massachusetts and Massachusetts Teachers Association locals to raise awareness about what this really means for their students and schools, including in Amesbury, Arlington, Boston, Chelsea, Fall River, Framingham, Lawrence, Lynn, Pittsfield, Revere, Springfield, and Worcester.
“Educators demonstrated their courage and character this morning. On short notice, educators in dozens of Massachusetts cities and towns took part in a national day of action to demonstrate their support for all students,” said Deb McCarthy, Vice President of the Massachusetts Teachers Association. “We need to be ready to contend with federal funding cuts and executive orders that will harm students if we do not have a plan to protect them.”
Out of all the questions posed by attendees and panelists, the concern most frequently posed focused on how Massachusetts families, educators, and residents can stand up to protect the state’s schools and students from President Trump’s cruel agenda.
“We will continue to fight for a public education system that working families and our most vulnerable students and communities can count on,” continued Tang. “Any attempts to close public institutions that Americans rely on so that billionaires like Elon Musk and Jeff Bezos don’t have to pay their fair share of taxes will be met with resistance. We cannot stand-by while unearned tax breaks are given to billionaires at the expense of working families and children in need.”
“This fight to protect public education will take all of us — students, families, educators and staff, and community allies — organizing together. We know from the past that our collective work can make a real difference, so it’s important to keep building our movement for change,” said Vatsady Sivongxay, Executive Director of the Massachusetts Education Justice Alliance — Education Fund. “Share information with other parents at your school; call friends and relatives in red and purple states and ask them to contact their legislators; or organize a teach-in or community standout to amplify what’s at stake for public education. Together, we can resist this assault on public education and protect our schools, students, and future.”