SUBSCRIBE TO OUR FREE NEWSLETTER
Daily news & progressive opinion—funded by the people, not the corporations—delivered straight to your inbox.
5
#000000
#FFFFFF
5
#000000
#FFFFFF
school privatization
'Project 2025 in Action': Trump Administration Fires Half of Education Department Staff
"Trump and Elon Musk have aimed their wrecking ball at public schools and the futures of the 50 million students."
Mar 12, 2025
The Trump administration on Tuesday took a major step toward dismantling the U.S. Department of Education by firing roughly half of the agency's workforce, a decision that teachers' unions and other champions of public education said would have devastating consequences for the nation's school system.
The department, now led by billionaire Linda McMahon, moved swiftly, terminating more than 1,300 federal workers on Tuesday including employees at the agency's student aid and civil rights offices.
Sheria Smith, president of AFGE Local 252, which represents Education Department workers, pledged in a statement to "fight these draconian cuts." The union toldNPR minutes after the statement was issued that Smith, an attorney with the Education Department's Office for Civil Rights, was laid off.
The Education Department said the mass staffing cuts would affect "nearly 50%" of the agency's workforce and that those impacted "will be placed on administrative leave beginning Friday, March 21st."
In a press release, McMahon declared that the workforce cuts reflect the department's "commitment to efficiency, accountability, and ensuring that resources are directed where they matter most: to students, parents, and teachers."
But critics, including a union that represents more than 3 million education workers nationwide, said the firings underscore the Trump administration's commitment to gutting public education in the interest of billionaires pushing tax cuts and school privatization.
"Trump and Elon Musk have aimed their wrecking ball at public schools and the futures of the 50 million students in rural, suburban, and urban communities across America by dismantling public education to pay for tax handouts for billionaires," said Becky Pringle, president of the National Education Association.
"The real victims will be our most vulnerable students," Pringle added. "Gutting the Department of Education will send class sizes soaring, cut job training programs, make higher education more expensive and out of reach for middle-class families, take away special education services for students with disabilities, and gut student civil rights protections."
"We will not sit by while billionaires like Elon Musk and Linda McMahon tear apart public services piece by piece."
Randi Weingarten, president of the American Federation of Teachers, said in a statement that "denuding an agency so it cannot function effectively is the most cowardly way of dismantling it."
"The massive reduction in force at the Education Department is an attack on opportunity that will gut the agency and its ability to support students, throwing federal education programs into chaos across the country," she continued. "This move will directly impact the 90% of students who attend public schools by denying them the resources they need to thrive. That's why Americans squarely oppose eliminating the Education Department. We are urging Congress—and the courts—to step in to ensure all students can maintain access to a high-quality public education."
The Education Department purge came days after news broke that President Donald Trump was preparing an executive order aimed at completely shuttering the agency—a move that would legally require congressional approval.
Lee Saunders, president of the American Federation of State, County and Municipal Employees, said late Tuesday that the Education Department firings "are Project 2025 in action, and they have one goal—to make it easier for billionaires and anti-union extremists to give themselves massive tax breaks at the expense of working people."
"Today's announcement from the Department of Education is just the beginning of what's to come," Saunders warned. "These layoffs threaten the well-being and educational opportunities for millions of children across the country and those seeking higher education. The dedicated public service workers at public schools, colleges, and universities deserve better. Elections may have consequences, but we will not sit by while billionaires like Elon Musk and Linda McMahon tear apart public services piece by piece. We will keep speaking out and finding ways to fight back."
Keep ReadingShow Less
'Truly Dystopian': Trump Administration Threatens Public Schools With Funding Cuts
A new Trump administration directive aims to "reduce our colleges and universities to the status of echo chambers, similar to those controlled by authoritarian states," warned PEN America.
Feb 16, 2025
Lawmakers and free expression groups voiced alarm Saturday after the Trump administration threatened to investigate and strip federal funding from public schools, including colleges and universities that don't comply with its broad interpretation of a recent U.S. Supreme Court decision striking down affirmative action programs in admissions.
In a letter to state education officials on Friday, Craig Trainor, the acting assistant secretary for civil rights at the U.S. Department of Education, wrote that the agency "intends to take appropriate measures to assess compliance with the applicable statutes and regulations based on the understanding embodied in this letter beginning no later than 14 days from today's date, including antidiscrimination requirements that are a condition of receiving federal funding."
"Institutions that fail to comply with federal civil rights law may, consistent with applicable law, face potential loss of federal funding," the letter states.
The letter takes aim at "DEI programs"—a right-wing boogeyman that the Trump administration has used as a pretext to rip apart federal agencies—and declares that the Education Department "will no longer tolerate the overt and covert racial discrimination that has become widespread in this nation's educational institutions," even as halts thousands of civil rights investigations.
PEN America warned that Trainor's sweeping directive "seeks to declare it a civil rights violation for educational institutions to engage in any diversity-related programming or to promote any diversity-related ideas—potentially including everything from a panel on the Civil Rights Movement to a Lunar New Year celebration."
"This declaration has no basis in law and is an affront to the freedom of speech and ideas in educational settings. It represents yet another twisting of civil rights law in an effort to demand ideological conformity by schools and universities," the group said in a statement Saturday. "To enact government interference in the intellectual life of such institutions is to end the United States' centuries-long history of intellectual freedom in educational settings, and to reduce our colleges and universities to the status of echo chambers, similar to those controlled by authoritarian states."
Brian Rosenberg, visiting professor of education at the Harvard Graduate School of Education, toldInside Higher Ed that the letter was "truly dystopian."
"It goes well beyond the Supreme Court ruling on admissions and declares illegal a wide range of common practices," Rosenberg said. "In my career I've never seen language of this kind from any government agency in the United States."
"Republicans tell you they want to empower local communities and that states, schools, and parents know best, and again and again use top-down threats to achieve their culture war agenda."
The letter comes amid the Trump administration's broader assault on public education, including a push to abolish the Education Department altogether. That assault is expected to intensify if billionaire Linda McMahon, a proponent of school privatization, is confirmed as education secretary.
The Elon Musk-led Department of Government Efficiency—which is currently rampaging through the Education Department and terminating contracts—posted Trainor's letter to X, the social media platform owned by Musk.
Sen. Patty Murray (D-Wash.), a senior member of the Senate Education Committee, said Saturday that "this threat to rip away the federal funding our public K-12 schools and colleges receive flies in the face of the law."
"I hope no parent, student, or teacher is intimidated by these threats—this former preschool teacher certainly is not," said Murray. " While it's anyone's guess what falls under the Trump administration's definition of 'DEI,' there is simply no authority or basis for Trump to impose such a mandate. In fact, federal laws prohibit ANY president from telling schools and colleges what to teach, including the Every Student Succeeds Act, that I negotiated with Republicans."
"Rather than trying to make college more affordable or helping to improve our kids' outcomes, Trump is letting far-right extremists inject politics into the classroom at every turn," Murray added. "Republicans tell you they want to empower local communities and that states, schools, and parents know best, and again and again use top-down threats to achieve their culture war agenda."
Keep ReadingShow Less
'A Win for the History Books': Brandon Johnson Defeats School Privatizer in Chicago
"Tonight is the beginning of a Chicago that truly invests in all of its people," Johnson said in his victory speech.
Apr 05, 2023
Progressive Cook County Commissioner Brandon Johnson defeated conservative Democrat and school privatizer Paul Vallas in Chicago's mayoral runoff on Tuesday, a victory he called a "gateway to a new future" for the nation's third-largest city.
"Tonight is the beginning of a Chicago that truly invests in all of its people," Johnson said in his victory speech, pledging to help usher in "a city that actually respects the workers who keep it running" and one "where public schools have the resources to meet the needs of every child."
Education policy quickly emerged as a central issue in the contest between Johnson and Vallas, which the progressive won with just over 51% of the vote.
A former public school teacher and longtime union organizer, Johnson vowed to prioritize investments in public education and oppose charter expansions—an agenda that couldn't have contrasted more sharply with that of Vallas, the former CEO of Chicago Public Schools and an ardent supporter of school privatization.
Vallas, whose campaign was backed by Republican donors and business interests, aggressively pursued school privatization schemes during his tenure as the head of school districts in Chicago, New Orleans, and Philadelphia—a record that Johnson's campaign spotlighted in an ad that aired this week as well as in debates ahead of Tuesday's vote.
"My opponent talks about school closures," Johnson said during one debate. "Well, he set up the market for schools to be closed. He got so good at it, he went around the country doing it."
Maurice Mitchell, national director of the Working Families Party, said in a statement late Tuesday that the Chicago runoff marks "a win for the history books."
"Brandon Johnson just defeated a deluge of far-right money and misinformation thanks to people power and his positive vision for a safe and thriving Chicago," Mitchell added. "Now comes the hard work of building a Chicago for the many, with strong schools, good jobs, and safe communities," Mitchell added. "We look forward to working with Brandon and the new class of Working Families alder members to reopen mental health clinics, pass universal childcare, and implement a local Green New Deal."
\u201cTonight, we have shown the world the power of hope, the strength of organizing, and the might of our collective voice.\n\nTomorrow, the real work begins. We will build a safer, stronger Chicago that reflects the hopes and dreams of every one of us \u2014 together.\u201d— Brandon Johnson (@Brandon Johnson) 1680667897
In contrast to Vallas, whose campaign was also backed by a super PAC with close ties to former Education Secretary Betsy DeVos, the bulk of Johnson's support came from unions such as the American Federation of Teachers (AFT) and the Chicago Teachers Union (CTU).
"Make no mistake about it," Johnson said in his victory speech, "Chicago is a union town."
Stacy Davis Gates, president of the CTU, said in a statement that "today, Chicago has spoken."
"Chicago has said yes to hope; yes to investment in people; yes to housing the unhoused, and yes to supporting young people with fully-funded schools," said Gates. "It is a new day in our city."
AFT President Randi Weingarten called Johnson's win "a transformational moment" that "sends a message that efforts to exploit anxiety will not work in the face of a multiracial, multiethnic, multigenerational working-class movement standing together as one."
Johnson's upset win Tuesday capped off a remarkable rise for a progressive lawmaker who was polling at just over 3% in December. At that time, according to one survey, Vallas was polling at 19%.
In January, Chicago's outgoing mayor, Lori Lightfoot, brushed aside the CTU's endorsement of Johnson, saying: "Brandon Johnson isn't going to be the mayor of this city."
During his remarks Tuesday night, Johnson gave a nod toward those who dismissed his chances.
"They said this would never happen," he told a crowd of supporters. "If they didn't know, now they know."
Keep ReadingShow Less
Most Popular