Student protesters shout during a “Hands off our schools” rally outside the U.S. Department of Education building in Washington, D.C. in April. The same group held a virtual news conference on Tuesday to protest President Donald Trump’s efforts to disband the U.S. Department of Education. (Photo: Kayla Bartkowski/Getty Images)
WASHINGTON – Two Democratic lawmakers joined student leaders Tuesday in sharply criticizing President Donald Trump’s continued efforts to dismantle the U.S. Department of Education.
U.S. Sen. Ed Markey of Massachusetts and U.S. Republican Lauren Underwood of Illinois, as well as high school and college students from across the United States, rebuked plans of the Trump administration to transfer some of the Department of Education’s responsibilities to other cabinet-level agencies as part of a larger repeal effort 46-year-old Education Department.
Markey said during a virtual news conference hosted by Hands Off Our Schools, a coalition of Washington, D.C. student government leaders, that Trump and Education Secretary Linda McMahon’s “dismantling of the department will have immediate negative consequences for students, families and local schools across the country.”
“When a parent or guardian needs support or technical assistance, there is no one to answer the phone,” he said.
McMahon defended the move at a White House news conference on Nov. 20, saying that “these interagency agreements to reduce our bureaucratic bloat are a key step in our effort to shift education authority from Washington to the state educational agency, the local superintendent, the local school board – entities that are accountable to you.”
But Markey and Underwood say the administration’s moves will have profoundly negative consequences.
“Trump’s agenda to destroy the Department of Education isn’t about cutting red tape — it’s about cruelty and intentionally breaking down programs that provide the promise of an education to every student,” Markey said.
Underwood said that “this administration’s attacks on our Department of Education are part of a much larger attack on the very foundations of our constitutional rights and our democracy.”
She added that “by abolishing the Department of Education, the administration has made a clear decision to abandon students and families.”
Underwood – a registered nurse – was also on target faculty proposal stemming from a “big, beautiful” law in Congress that would impose stricter loan limits on students pursuing nursing programs because they would not be subject to “professional” degree classifications.
She said the effort is “devastating to our already overstretched workforce and a disaster for our health care system, particularly in rural communities.”
“A Thoughtless Decision”
Students from California, Texas, Virginia and Washington also sharply criticized the department’s plans to shift responsibilities to other agencies and the potential impact on marginalized students.
“This thoughtless decision to move programs out of the (Department of Education) targets the most vulnerable among us,” said Darius Wagner, a Georgetown University student, describing the move as “unnecessarily cruel.”
“Other federal departments that currently (bear) this responsibility do not have the resources, staff or expertise to manage these programs and will inevitably mismanage resources, which will leave our most vulnerable children behind,” Wagner added.
Ayaan Moledina, a high school student in Austin, Texas, said that “dismantling and destroying the department will have serious consequences for the success of marginalized students.”
Moledina, who serves as federal policy director for the advocacy group Students Engaged in Advancing Texas (SEAT), said that “without the federal department, there will be no federal oversight of institutions to guarantee students’ basic and fundamental rights.”
He added: “There will be no federal aid for institutions to implement federally mandated programs, which places a greater burden on schools that already have their plates full.”
Six interagency agreements
The agreements to transfer some of the Department of Education’s responsibilities to four other departments were met with swift condemnation from Democratic officials, labor unions and interest groups, who questioned the legality of the measure and expressed concerns about the harm it would cause to students, families and schools.
The Department of Education explained that it will “maintain all statutory responsibilities and continue to oversee these programs” in connection with six agreements signed with Labor, Home Affairs, Health and Social Care and the State.
Prior to the six announced interagency agreements, the agency had already undergone many changes that United States Supreme Court a short-lived green lithe in July that included mass layoffs that gutted more than 1,300 workers and a plan to radically downsize the department ordered earlier this year.
