Massachusetts Educators Denounce Trump’s Latest Executive Order Targeting American Children
Illegally erodes state control of public education and strips critical support from every school district in the nation
After weeks of speculation, President Donald Trump has signed an Executive Order calling for the dismantling of the United States Department of Education (ED), just the latest in a string of illegal orders that would cause irreparable harm to children across the country, greatly diminishing our ability to provide all students with the opportunities that come with access to a high-quality public education.
The Trump Administration’s dangerous education agenda for America means widespread cuts impacting every district in the nation, cruelly targeting the most vulnerable students, and eliminating jobs both students and our working families rely on, all to fund tax cuts for billionaires like Elon Musk.
“President Trump and Linda McMahon have no problem using children as collateral in their efforts to fund massive tax credits for the wealthiest Americans,” said American Federation of Teachers President Jessica Tang. “At the end of the day, the White House is not just illegally dismantling a department - they're dismantling the futures of millions of children across the country.”
Public schools are governed by their respective state and local education authority. Federal law protects state and local control over public schools - from approving a school’s curriculum to setting graduation requirements.
“Unfortunately, the Trump Administration is, once again, using fear tactics and sowing confusion to try and implement an agenda based on misinformation and threats because the law is not on his side,” continued Tang. “State and local governments already have authority over public schools and that is simply not what this executive order is actually going to do.”
The ED provides school districts with targeted funding and resources to ensure all students have the opportunity to reach their full potential - no matter where they live, their ability, or their need. Stripping schools and students of funding and their ability to access a quality public education is cruel and goes against the core belief held by most Americans - that all children should have the opportunity to succeed.
“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. Hundreds of thousands of children here in Massachusetts will be hurt when they lose the service they rely on and educators they know and trust,” said AFT Massachusetts Secretary-Treasurer Brant Duncan. “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.”
Instead of targeted funding to ensure all students have access to equal educational opportunities in our public schools, the Trump Administration today said any federal funding that is kept would be housed and distributed through other government agencies through block grants. These lump sums of funding would not come with the accountability measures current federal education funding has in place to ensure the money for specific programs and populations is going to those most in need.
“For decades, federal education funding has helped ensure students of all abilities and from all backgrounds have access to the same opportunities as their peers,” continued President Tang. “Moving away from targeted education funding will mean we can no longer ensure that services and investments are getting to the students who need it the most. Instead, there would be nothing stopping the states from shifting all federal education funds to privatization schemes like vouchers for private schools that most benefit those who already have the means to afford them.”
Below is a breakdown of the targeted education funding at stake in Massachusetts:
- $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 190,000 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 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.
Along with widespread cuts that impact nearly every aspect of society, this is just the latest example of the Trump Administration’s main focus: helping billionaires get even richer off the backs of working families. Only this time, they’re stealing from children. Additional cuts or threats of cuts that impact schools, students, and working families include:
- Medicaid – On top of the 1.6 million Massachusetts residents - over 712,000 of which are children - who rely on Medicaid, schools across the state receive reimbursements from Medicaid for services provided to students like speech therapy, mental health services, skilled nursing, etc. In FY24, schools in Massachusetts received $81 million in reimbursements for these critical services.
- Federal Layoffs – The second largest employer in Massachusetts is the federal government, with nearly 44,000 residents across the state whose jobs are on the line.
- USDA Cuts - Eliminations include a $12 million cut for Northeast Food for Schools, which provides money to Massachusetts schools so they can buy fresh, wholesome food directly from local farmers for their students. This cut not only hurts our schools and students, but impacts our local economies.
- Teacher Pipeline Funding - The Administration has already cut $6 million in funding for programs to establish training and certification programs to address ongoing shortages in Springfield, Holyoke, and Boston.
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;
- Cutting staff down at the Office of Civil Rights to levels where they cannot fulfill their duties to protect students from discriminatory practices and unsafe learning environments;
- Restricting instruction related to race, gender, and other topics in K-12 schools and threatening to strip schools found not in compliance of federal funding; 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.
“Public education is a cornerstone of our democracy and a critical component to economic mobility,” continued President Tang. “Alarmingly, this is just the latest anti-American order we’ve seen issued by the White House and it will not just undermine our public schools and harm our students, but it will undermine democracy itself and further pave the way for authoritarian abuses of power.”
While their continued assaults on public education will have devastating impacts on schools and children across the country, today’s executive order ignores the fact that the President and Linda McMahon cannot unilaterally dismantle the ED. Instead, it would take an act of Congress.