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becky pringle
'Another Unqualified Billionaire': Senate Confirms McMahon as Education Secretary
"The more the president stacks his administration with eccentric billionaires, the further the system gets rigged against working people, seniors, and students," argued one critic.
Mar 03, 2025
Continuing what one watchdog called "their pattern of rubber-stamping deeply flawed and unqualified" Cabinet nominees of President Donald Trump, Senate Republicans on Monday confirmed sports entertainment billionaire and prolific GOP fundraiser Linda McMahon to head the U.S. Department of Education—an agency the president has repeatedly vowed to abolish.
Senators confirmed McMahon in a 51-45 vote. The loyal Trump ally and top fundraiser previously led the Small Business Administration during the president's first term. However, other than serving one year on the Connecticut Board of Education and as a trustee for Sacred Heart University, she has little experience in the field.
Republicans—many of whom share Trump's desire to end the Department of Education—didn't seem to care, with Sen. Chuck Grassley of Iowa asserting that "education is still mostly a state and local responsibility."
BREAKING: Senate Republicans just confirmed Linda McMahon as Education Secretary—another unqualified billionaire who doesn't understand the Department she's tasked with leading and who is ready to grab the hatchet and help Trump destroy the Department of Education altogether.
— Senator Patty Murray (@murray.senate.gov) March 3, 2025 at 3:29 PM
McMahon gained a more dubious reputation for what one campaigner called her "documented history of enabling sexual abuse of children and sweeping sexual violence under the rug" during her tenure as World Wrestling Entertainment CEO.
The 76-year-old finds herself in the position of being simultaneously tasked with dismantling the DOE and ramping up attacks on diversity, equity, and inclusion programs; "woke" education; transgender students; and other right-wing bugaboos. She is also expected to promote expanded voucher programs, which supporters call "school choice."
Randi Weingarten, president of the American Federation of Teachers—which is leading a "Protect Our Kids" nationwide day of action Tuesday—said in a statement that "we know we will disagree with Secretary McMahon on a host of issues, including her stance on using public funds for private school vouchers."
"We're deeply concerned that her boss, Donald Trump, wants her to take a wrecking ball to the Department of Education and this nation's public schools," Weingarten added. "We want to work with her on strengthening public schools and ramping up high school career and technical education and workforce development efforts across the nation. We ask that she respect the hardworking and amazing educators of this country who are helping young people every day."
National Education Association president Becky Pringle said in a
statement that "every student—no matter where they live, how much their family earns, or the color of their skin—deserves the opportunity, resources, and support they need to grow into their full brilliance."
"Linda McMahon has pledged to dismantle public education and take away resources students need by hollowing out the Department of Education, destroying programs that support students with disabilities, making higher education less accessible, and gutting civil rights protections," Pringle continued.
"While educators and parents would hope McMahon will reflect upon the enormous responsibility she has to our nation's students, sadly there is no evidence to believe she will use her position to focus on strengthening public schools so every student can thrive," she added.
Tony Carrk, the executive director of the watchdog Accountable.US, argued that "every senator who confirmed McMahon is now complicit in the Trump-Project 2025 scheme to abolish the Education Department and jeopardize billions in federal funding needed to strengthen public schools and support special education programs."
"The one-two gut punch of the administration's plans to starve states,
especially conservative ones, of critical federal Medicaid and education money to pay for another wasteful tax break for billionaires like McMahon will leave millions of Americans behind for decades to come," Carrk added. "The more the president stacks his administration with eccentric billionaires, the further the system gets rigged against working people, seniors, and students."
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160+ Groups Decry GOP Plan to Defund Communities Nationwide
"The bill threatens a system of checks and balances that is crucial to ensuring our government serves the people—not the president's personal goals and interests."
Feb 19, 2025
More than 160 civil society groups on Wednesday urged U.S. congressional leaders to vote against proposed legislation that would "cut critical funding to hundreds of communities in 32 states across the country for programs that American communities depend on," if their officials refuse to cooperate with the Trump administration's mass deportation and detention program.
The groups—including the ACLU, American Federation of Teachers, League of Women Voters, MoveOn, NAACP, National Education Association (NEA), Planned Parenthood, Service Employees International Union, and others—are united in opposition to H.R. 32, which would withhold federal funding from municipalities that don't help with immigration enforcement.
The bill's Republican sponsors call it the "No Bailout for Sanctuary Cities Act." The rights groups have dubbed it the "Defund Our Communities Act."
"Congress should not pass legislation handing the Trump administration vast and vaguely worded authority it may use to further intimidate, coerce, and inflict chaos on schools, hospitals, local police, and other institutions that our communities rely on," the groups wrote in a letter to House Speaker Mike Johnson (R-La.) and House Minority Leader Hakeem Jeffries (D-N.Y.).
"Nor should Congress, through this legislation, concede its 'power of the purse'—a vital aspect of our constitutional balance of powers that is perhaps more important than ever," the groups added.
This bill would blackmail sanctuary cities and states into carrying out Trump's mass deportations or risk losing funding for schools, hospitals, and housing. Tell your representatives to vote NO on the Defund Our Communities Act.
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— ACLU (@aclu.org) February 19, 2025 at 1:49 PM
The letter continues:
H.R. 32 would allow the administration to strip a state or local government of federal funds it "intends to use for the benefit" of undocumented immigrants. While couched in terms of immigration, we fear the actual result of this bill would be a funding cut off across the board, putting critical services to all our community members at risk. As you well know, state and local agencies do not generally segregate their funding allocations for citizens versus noncitizens, let alone noncitizens without legal status versus all others...
The Trump administration could weaponize H.R. 32 to freeze vast amounts of federal funding to hundreds of cities and dozens of states—simply because state and local agencies choose or are legally obligated not to fully participate in President [Donald] Trump's unprecedented mass deportation drive, or because they lack the resources to do so and are unable to meet the Trump administration's latest demands. Congress should not put the vast array of services that your constituents rely on at the whim and mercy of the Trump administration.
"This bill would undermine our constitutional balance of powers in two ways: escalating federal intimidation of state and local governments; and undermining Congress' power of the purse," the letter's signers argued. "In both cases, the bill threatens a system of checks and balances that is crucial to ensuring our government serves the people—not the president's personal goals and interests."
Deirdre Schifeling, the ACLU's chief political and advocacy officer, said in a statement Wednesday that "the 'Defund Our Communities Act' is a gross violation of the constitutional balance of powers that our democracy depends on."
"Congress should not hand the Trump administration the authority to threaten, intimidate, and coerce local governments across the country—doing so would set a dangerous precedent," Schifeling added.
NEA president Becky Pringle said that "most of us believe every student deserves the opportunity, resources, and support to reach their full potential no matter where they live, the color of their skin, or place of birth."
"As educators, we have accepted the sacred responsibility to protect students—regardless of their immigration status—and to protect families, schools, and communities," she continued. "The 'Defund Our Communities Act' would trample on these basic principles and, devastatingly, have a lasting, harmful effect on our most vulnerable students by taking away critical funding for school breakfast, lunch programs, and other essential services."
"All across America," Pringle added, "as educators encounter students terrified by threats of mass deportation, we will continue to protect students from the reckless agenda and actions from politicians who want to play dangerous games with the lives of our students."
The groups' letter comes as local officials, school districts, healthcare professionals, religious institutions, and others across the United States vow to resist Trump's anti-immigrant agenda, including his order allowing Immigration and Customs Enforcement agents to arrest undocumented immigrants in or around "sensitive" locations like schools, places of worship, hospitals, and shelters.
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Thousands of Teachers Strike in Oregon's Largest School District
"We are sending a powerful message to PPS, to the city of Portland, to the state, that Portland communities won't settle for less than great public schools for all," said one strike leader.
Nov 02, 2023
Demanding adequate investments in students, schools, and educators, 4,500 members of the Portland Association of Teachers went on strike Wednesday following months of failed negotiations with Oregon's largest school district.
"We are making history in Portland today," Portland Association of Teachers (PAT) president Angela Bonilla said at a Wednesday afternoon rally outside Roosevelt High School in North Portland's St. Johns neighborhood.
"We are sending a powerful message to PPS, to the city of Portland, to the state, that Portland communities won't settle for less than great public schools for all," said Bonilla, referring to the Portland Public Schools district.
The strike, which came after PAT rejected an eleventh-hour offer from PPS, resulted in the closure of all 81 of the district's public schools, sending some parents scrambling to find daycare—and in some cases, food—for their children, many of whom rely upon the district's breakfast and lunch services.
Oregon Food Bank president Susannah Morgan told KGW that "even when Portland Public Schools is closed, food is still available."
PAT wants PPS to hire more counselors, provide more planning time for teachers, increase support for special education students, reduce class sizes, and boost salaries and cost-of-living adjustments.
Bonilla noted teachers working as many as 20 unpaid hours a week to keep up with workloads, schools unable to sufficiently serve students' mental health needs, and the district's crowded classrooms—which sometimes don't have enough desks—as causes for the strike.
According toThe Oregonian:
The strike, the first in district history, comes after a 10-month stalemate during which district and union leaders were unable to agree on even basic budget realities. How long the strike might last is unknown, though sources have pegged the likely duration as three days to two weeks. Teachers will lose their health insurance for December if they do not return to work by mid-November.
There is a yawning gap of at least $200 million between what teachers are seeking and what the district says it can afford without having to make deep and painful cuts in the years ahead, whether through layoffs, fewer instructional days, closed schools, or a combination of the three. The two sides will not meet again to negotiate until Friday, which means schools will close Thursday too. Friday was already a day off for students and had been scheduled as a teacher professional development day.
"Our kids don't deserve the bare minimum; they deserve everything," Bonilla said during an October 28 teachers' march across the Burnside Bridge. "And we will not stop fighting until we can give them the schools that they deserve."
The median salary for Portland teachers is $87,000, slightly above the area's median income. PPS offered educators a 4.5% raise for the first year of a prospective contract, with 3% increases in each subsequent year. Union members want an 8.5% raise in the first year and 5-6% annual increases.
PPS—and Oregon Gov. Tina Kotek, a Democrat endorsed by PAT—say the district can't afford the union's demands, citing, among other constraints, a state law limiting its power to increase school taxes.
Brittany Doris, a fifth grade teacher at Capitol Hill Elementary School in the city's Capitol Hill neighborhood, told Oregon Public Broadcasting that she has 34 students—and rats—in her classroom. Although Doris has a master's degree, she recently moved in with a roommate because she can't afford to rent on her own in the neighborhood.
"We have students with disabilities who aren't getting served because our team is so overworked," she explained. "We have too few adults for too many kids with some really big needs."
Becky Pringle, president of the National Education Association, flew in from Philadelphia to stand in solidarity with the striking Portland teachers, telling the crowd at Roosevelt High School Wednesday that she knows what PAT educators are fighting for, "because that's what all teachers are fighting for all across the country."
"No one goes into teaching to make a lot of money, but we do expect that we will be able to take care of our families," Pringle said.
A survey of 1,000 registered Oregon voters conducted by the New York-based Democratic pollster GBAO Strategies in mid-September
found that an overwhelming majority of respondents support teachers striking for more high-quality educators, smaller class sizes, and more student support services.
The strike has also drawn the support of elected officials, from the local to the federal level.
"Over the last three years, our educators have strived to maintain a quality, equitable education program for our children through the enormous difficulties of the Covid-19 pandemic," Oregon's two U.S. senators, Jeff Merkley and Ron Wyden—both Democrats—said in a joint statement. "They have been underpaid and overstressed, and we strongly affirm our support for Portland's educators exercising their right to strike for an equitable collective bargaining agreement."
"At the same time, we urge leadership from both the Portland Association of Teachers and Portland Public Schools to continue working in good faith toward an agreement that addresses a number of key issues, including class size, salaries and benefits, safety in the classroom, stronger equity programs, and expanded services for early learning and special education," the senators added.
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