Sarah Toce
U.S. Senator Patty Murray (D-WA), a former preschool teacher and current senior member of the Senate Education Committee, joined her Senate colleagues at a press conference to speak about the extreme education agenda that Donald Trump and his allies have laid out for a second Trump administration.
“As a former preschool teacher—I have to say that I think a preschool student could’ve written a better education agenda,” Senator Murray warned. “It is unimaginable to me that we would cut our school funding in half, or fire teachers, or leave kids in the dust. It is unthinkable to me that we would shutter the Department of Education and tell our parents, and students, and teachers, and schools across the country, ‘Sorry you’re on your own!’”
Murray added, “Our public schools are the backbone of our country’s strength, and it is the foundation of our future. Fighting for that future—fighting for our kids—is what first drove this mom in tennis shoes into politics, and it still drives me today.”
Former President Trump has said he wants dismantle the Department of Education and cut education funding in half, and also repeatedly said he wants to cut off federal funding to schools with vaccine requirements.
Meanwhile, Project 2025—the agenda a far-right alliance of former Trump administration officials have prepared for a second Trump administration—offers a roadmap to accomplish a far right shift in national education policy, including dramatic cuts to education investments. Among many other extreme policies, it includes proposals to eliminate Head Start which provides hundreds of thousands of families with early childhood education options, eliminate funding for Title I schools which serve low income communities, weaken special needs education, and cut back on which students receive school lunches.
“Project 2025 calls for ending Head Start, that is a program that has given millions of parents a start in early childhood education. It calls for choking off funding for schools in our low-income areas—including many in our rural communities,” Murray said. “It calls for taking student lunches away from some students. This is really wildly out of touch with families and out of touch with reality.”
Murray continued, “Do they think any parent wants to lose Head Start? Do they think any student wants to go to school hungry? Because that is what Project 2025 means. And that is what Trump is promising.”
The Center for American Progress details potential damage of the Project 2025 proposal to eliminate Head Start, and Title I funding.
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