January 20, 2025
Washington, DC – Ahead of the inauguration of President Trump on January 20, Advancement Project has released this statement from executive director Judith Browne Dianis regarding likely upcoming changes to education policy and funding:
“Public education – one of the last public goods in our country and the foundation of a healthy, functioning society – is under attack by President Trump and alt-right conservatives. The Trump administration seeks to dismantle civil rights protections and weaponize the Department of Justice to recreate all-white segregation academies, controlling what we think and denying who we are.
President Trump has threatened to dismantle the Department of Education, which would make it more difficult for young people of color and students with disabilities to gain a quality education. This is a direct attack on the civil rights of young people, allowing school districts to discriminate against students without repercussion. It would also put the Title 1 program at risk, shortchanging 2.8 million children living in poverty across the country by taking away funding for books and materials, school buildings and infrastructure, free breakfast and lunch programs, and other much-needed resources for learning.
We also expect the Trump administration to rescind federal guidance on school discipline to end the discriminatory use of school discipline, including suspensions, expulsions, and school-based arrests.
On top of that, it is likely that President Trump will seek to deport students at schools. The administration wants to reverse Plyer v. Doe, which established that it is unconstitutional for states to deny children a free public education because of their immigration status. This could lead immigrant families to stop going to school to avoid deportation or disengage from school due to racial profiling and discriminatory treatment.
We also expect to see legislation such as the Educational Choice for Children Act diverting funds away from public schools and into private schools and families who can already afford to send their children to private school or homeschool. We know that this voucher program was explicitly created to eliminate public schools, leading to school closures and turning a fight for more resources into a fight for the existence of schools at all.
Finally, the new administration intends to reverse Title IX protections that make it safer for LGBTQIA people including trans and gender non-conforming students to go to school and participate in athletic programs and other extracurriculars.
If the Trump administration is successful at any of these acts, they will dismantle public education brick by brick. We demand that states and local school districts enact legislation that not only protects young people, but continues to expand education access and make it more inclusive.”
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Advancement Project is a next-generation, multi-racial civil rights organization. Rooted in the great human rights struggles for equality and justice, we exist to fulfill America’s promise of a caring, inclusive and just democracy. We use innovative tools and strategies to strengthen social movements and achieve high impact policy change. We are a co-convener of the National Campaign for Police Free schools, a formation of 20+ youth-led grassroots organizations fighting to end the criminalization of youth in the classroom, create liberatory educational spaces, and implement an affirmative vision of safety and transformative justice.Visit www.advancementproject.org to learn more.