Leaders in education met in a virtual press conference in early March to discuss the potential for substantial cuts in federal funding to education as part of a nationwide series of protests.
The conference was hosted by the American Federation of Teachers, a national union of educators, and spearheaded the organization’s “Protect Our Kids” day of action, a nationwide series of more than 2,000 events and social media actions that took place.
“All of this is about protecting our kids and protecting our communities,” AFT President Randi Weingarten said. “The message is really clear and simple. It’s not okay to rob students, to rob children of the education that they need and deserve, in order to give big tax cuts to the wealthy. “That is why we are here today,” she said.
There were various state and national education leaders represented at the conference, including Becky Pringle, president of the National Education Association, and Sofia Vasquez Luna, an executive board member for the Labor Council for Latin American Advancement.
The leaders discussed how the impending cuts in federal funding will impact students, families and communities.
According to Weingarten, one in every nine dollars spent on education comes from the federal government, and this money is spent directly on educators and aid to students, not “by the bureaucracy, she said.
Weingarten, like others at the conference, was concerned with potential cuts to programs such as Part A of the Elementary and Secondary Education Act, colloquially known as Title 1. This is a program that provides financial assistance to school districts in order to support children from low-income families.
According to the National Center for Education Statistics, Title 1’s purpose is to “provide all children significant opportunity to receive a fair, equitable, and high-quality education, and to close educational achievement gaps by allocating federal funds for education programs and services.”
Weingarten also expressed concern over other programs such as the Individuals with Disabilities Education Act, known as IDEA, which mandates that students with disabilities receive free, appropriate education nationally.
These two programs give $33 billion in federal aid directly to schools across the nation each year.
However, since both programs are products of congressional acts they cannot be overturned by an executive order.
Following the press conference, and as part of the national day of action, the AFT and New York State United Teachers, rallied in Albany outside the Capitol Building.
They were joined by hundreds of education and labor activists, parents, students and educators who stood outside to listen to speeches and yell chants.
“There are some people in Washington who have proposed some major cuts to education,” NYSUT President Melinda Person said. “They are trying to tell us that cutting education would somehow be good for our country, that stripping billions from our schools would be efficient. That eliminating resources from our most vulnerable students is a way to streamline costs.”
Person continued, “What’s being proposed are not smart policies. These are attacks on our students, our schools and our communities.”
Along with the AFT and NYSUT, other organizations focused on education activism were present. Those included The New York State Council of School Superintendents, the Alliance for Quality Education and the New York State Parent Teacher Association. Dr. Betty Rosa, the New York Commissioner of Education also spoke at the rally.
Accompanying the education activists were labor organizations including the New York American Federation of Labor and Congress of Industrial Organizations, the New York Public Employees Federation, the coalition of Black Trade Unionist and the New York City branch of the NAACP.
The protestors echoed the concerns expressed by the leaders in education who spoke at the press conference earlier in the day.
“What does this look like in real life if these cuts were to go through?” Persons asked. “It would mean classrooms without enough teachers. It would mean fewer councilors, fewer after school activities. It means parents left scrambling for support, teachers stretched thin, and students forced to learn in environments that do not fit their needs.”
Following the national day of action, on March 6. Gov. Kathy Hochul held a virtual meeting with education leaders in New York state. In this meeting, Hochul spoke about what these potential cuts could mean for New York.
“What does that mean for a place like New York,” Hochul said. “$5 billion in cuts. We’re talking about billions of dollars lost in Pell grants, money for kids with disabilities, programs that are helping our kids in rural areas and mental health.”
Hochul stated that cuts of this scale will not be able to be filled by increased state spending and that programs that lose funding will remain unfunded, but encouraged New York residents to get active in the midterm elections so that a “firewall” can be built in the House of Representatives, and prevent these cuts from going through.
“What they’re doing is saying our kids don’t matter. What’s more important is that we slash for the sake of slashing and also be able to fund tax breaks for millionaires and billionaires,” Hochul said.
