Children’s Defense Fund will fight Trump-McMahon dismantling without fear.
Media Contact: John Henry, jhenry@childrensdefense.org, CDF Media Relations Manager, 708-646-7679
Every student in America must be prepared for global workforce competition and equipped to vote, volunteer, and lift their voices in public life through stage-appropriate instruction, learning about their culture, democracy, and history. For two generations, the United States Department of Education has pursued its mission of promoting “student achievement and preparation for global competitiveness by fostering educational excellence and ensuring equal access” through Republican and Democratic administrations. The March 20, 2025, Presidential Executive Order calling for the dismantling of the department is illegitimate, short-sighted, and a threat to the nation’s future.
More than 50 million children rely on the department’s services to ensure access to learning for students being raised in low-income families, living in rural communities, and overcoming disabilities. For all children and youth, now is the time to advance, strengthen, and modernize the department for its mission, not undermine it. While we are clear that the President lacks the authority to close the department established by an act of Congress in 1980, Americans should be aware of the potential impacts of diminishing its capacity and call on Congress to stand up—for itself, for our children, and for fairness. If the department were to close:
- Students attending roughly 98,000 public schools and 32,000 private schools in 18,200 school districts would face unnecessary negative consequences.
- More than twelve million post-secondary students who depend on its grants, loans, and work-study assistance would be negatively impacted.
- Title I funds for schools serving children experiencing poverty by supporting 180,300 teaching positions for more than 2.8 million students would be threatened.
- Historically marginalized students, including those who are Black and Brown, living with disabilities, transgender, nonbinary, and immigrant students will lack necessary civil rights protections.
Children’s Defense Fund and its partners will fight federal efforts to harm young people by limiting access to quality education for all students, including the Trump Administration and Secretary Linda McMahon’s efforts to dismantle the Department of Education. Our 1974 ground-breaking report, Children Out of School in America, documented the tragic picture of an America prior to the establishment of a federal Department of Education. We refuse to go back to a day when poverty, disability, or family circumstances kept our kids from the teaching that helps them do better than their parents. Specifically, alongside our partners in service, advocacy, and organizing across the country, we will:
- Organize Days of Social Action focused on public education in 100 communities and 30 states.
- Model culturally responsive literacy and leadership education serving 12,000 students through CDF Freedom Schools®.
- Continue weekly witness at the Capitol with faith leaders calling Congress to moral action.
- Mobilize child advocates in Washington, DC and targeted state capitols to compel legislators to protect fair access to quality, equitably-funded education.
- Seek out opportunities to support partner activations, from legislation to litigation, to ensure access to quality public education for children and youth.
- Work with partners to paint the picture of a fresh vision for education rights in America.
About Children’s Defense Fund
Founded in 1973, Children’s Defense Fund envisions a nation where marginalized children flourish, leaders prioritize their well-being, and communities wield the power to ensure they thrive. The only national, multi-issue advocacy organization working at the intersection of child well-being and racial justice, CDF advances the well-being of America’s most diverse generation, the 74 million children and youth under the age of 18 and 30 million young adults under the age of 25. CDF’s grassroots movements in marginalized communities build power for child-centered public policy, informed by racial equity and the lived experience of children and youth. Its renowned CDF Freedom Schools® program is conducted in nearly 100 cities across 30 states and territories. Learn more at www.childrensdefense.org.