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“To students, to parents, to teachers, now is the time to fight back,” Warren said.
Massachusetts Sen. Elizabeth Warren is fighting the Trump administration’s efforts to dismantle the Department of Education and speaking out against attempts to terminate millions of dollars in education grant funding for Massachusetts.
On Wednesday, Warren launched a “Save Our Schools” campaign to “highlight the consequences for every student and public school in America,” according to a press release.
“Our public schools are the foundation of our future, but Donald Trump and Elon Musk are trying to end public education as we know it,” Warren said on the Senate floor Friday morning. “I’ve seen with my own eyes what the Department of Education does for families.”
The campaign will “amplify the real-life impacts of cuts to [the Education Department],” “lead investigations to hold the Trump administration accountable,” and “bring students, teachers, parents, and unions into the fight to protect access to public education,” the press release says.
Massachusetts public school districts are also challenging the administration’s department cuts. Easthampton and Somerville public school districts are plaintiffs in a lawsuit filed last week in the U.S. District Court for the District of Massachusetts, opposing the Trump administration’s attacks on the governmental department.
Warren, who has worked as a public school teacher, asked people across the country to share their stories about a public school teacher who made a difference in their lives to inform the work she and her team are doing to protect the Department of Education.
Warren shared her own story on the Senate floor.
“It was a second grade teacher, Mrs. Lee, who scooped me up and whispered in my ear that I was special and that I could be a public school teacher,” Warren said. “For all the rest of my growing up years, whenever someone asked me anything about my future or what I was interested in, I would stand a little taller and say, ‘I’m going to be a teacher.’ It guided my entire life.”
Warren has also condemned the federal government’s termination of $106 million in K-12 education grant funding for Massachusetts.
On Thursday, Warren co-signed a letter with Massachusetts Sen. Edward J. Markey, Gov. Maura Healey, and other members of Congress from Massachusetts addressed to Secretary of Education Linda McMahon. The letter expressed concern about the “abrupt termination of congressionally authorized and appropriated funding for education in Massachusetts.”
The Trump administration advised Massachusetts that the funding would remain available until March 2026, according to the letter.
“Relying on the expectation set by the Trump administration, school districts and schools developed their budgets and made spending decisions,” the letter states. “Some school districts were anticipating using the funding for mental health supports, security, air quality improvement, and math tutoring.”
A spokesperson at the Department of Education defended the department’s move to terminate the pandemic-era funding.
“COVID is over. States and school districts can no longer claim they are spending their emergency pandemic funds on ‘COVID relief’ when there are numerous documented examples of misuse,” the spokesperson told MassLive.
Still, Warren remained steadfast in her appeal to protect the Department of Education.
“To students, to parents, to teachers, now is the time to fight back,” Warren said in the Senate chamber. “We are fighting for an America where it’s not just the kids of billionaires who get a good education, but every kid in every community, all across our Commonwealth.”
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