Representative Magaziner and Senator Reed discuss Trump/Musk plan to abolish the Department of Education
"Dismantling the United States Department of Education or decreasing the funds would be harmful to all children in Rhode Island," said Rhode Island KIDS COUNT Executive Director Paige Parks.
United States Representative Seth Magaziner (Democrat, RI-02) and Senator Jack Reed (Democrat, RI) held a press conference with Rhode Island education leaders to address the devastating impacts on Rhode Island communities of proposed cuts to (or even the elimination of) the United States Department of Education.
This press conference follows the confirmation hearing of Linda McMahon as Secretary of Education and comes amid growing concerns about the Trump Administration’s plans to abolish the department. Wednesday, President Trump commented that he’d like the department closed “immediately,” reports indicate that officials from Elon Musk’s Department of Government Efficiency (DOGE) have already accessed Education Department databases, identifying employees for dismissal and canceling federal contracts.
The best presentation came from Rhode Island KIDS COUNT Executive Director Paige Parks.
Executive Director Parks: Rhode Island Kids Count is a statewide policy and advocacy organization dedicated to improving Rhode Island’s children’s health, safety, education, economic wellbeing, and development. We strongly commit to equity and eliminating disparities based on race, ethnicity, income status, disability, neighborhood, zip code, and immigration status.
We are a nonpartisan, nonprofit organization, so please be clear: We will work with any policymaker that works for the betterment of children and families. My remarks this morning are not about parties. They are not about political leanings. This is about Rhode Island’s children and how the impact of federal investments makes a huge difference in their educational opportunities. The United States Department of Education provides federal funds needed to help Rhode Island meet its goal of every public school student having equal access to high-quality and rigorous educational opportunities from pre-K through grade 12.
Our local cities and towns, this State, and the federal government provide the resources we need to help achieve this. On October 1st, 2023, 44% of all children in Rhode Island public schools were low-income, and through Title I funds, additional financial support was provided to the school districts that serve children from low-income families. These funds support extra academic support and programs specifically designed to meet the needs of our low-income children.
As you would imagine, these funds affect many of our urban districts. Before the pandemic, 12% of Providence Public Schools funding came from the United States Department of Education. 16% of Central Falls’ funding, 15% of Woonsocket’s, and 11% of Pawtucket’s. But know that this funding supports districts outside of our urban core. 10% of Newport’s school budget is based on federal funds. 5% of Warwick’s, 6% of Burrillville’s, 6% of Westerly’s, 7% of West Warwick’s, and 8% of Tiverton’s.
This impacts all of our school districts.
The United States Department of Education also administers Individuals with Disabilities Education Act (IDEA) Part C funds. Part B funds provide federal funding for the education of children with disabilities, and Part C provides federal funds for our infants and toddlers with disabilities. Before the pandemic, this was about $46 million -just for IDEA funds. How many kids in Rhode Island does this impact? In 2023, 16% of our students - over 22,000 - received special education services. For our kids receiving early intervention funded by Part C in 2023, that was 6% of all kids under three in Rhode Island. That’s over 1800 infants and toddlers.
Dismantling the United States Department of Education will lead to fewer resources for our students with disabilities and for our infants and toddlers, who the pandemic and shortages In staffing have already impacted. This would put our youngest children at even greater risk of falling behind their peers.
The 21st Century Community Learning Center Program, which the United States Department of Education administers, is the only federal funding source dedicated to exclusively supporting local afterschool, before-school, and summer learning programs. These programs help to support accelerated academic recovery,; student social, emotional, and mental health; and provides a safe space for kids while their parents are working. In the fiscal year 2024, Rhode Island received $6.5 million in these funds, which helped to provide 5,288 children and youth with a place to be after school.
The United States Department of Education helped get our kids into work with credentials. In 2023, the four-year graduation rate for our CTE concentrators was 92%. That is higher than the 84% graduation rate. ’ 84% graduation rate. CTE programs work so well for so many kids. We cannot put these funds at risk. The United States Department of Education has also partnered with Rhode Island to help meet and address children’s mental health needs and the mental health crisis we are experiencing here in Rhode Island.
Thanks to the United States Department of Education funds, which went through the Substance Abuse and Mental Health Service Administration (SAMHSA), Rhode Island has provided Mental Health First Aid training to students and educators throughout its public schools. Mental Health First Aid is a groundbreaking program that helps students identify, understand, and respond to signs of a mental health crisis.
Dismantling the United States Department of Education or decreasing the funds would harm all children in Rhode Island. We, adults, need to stand up and speak out for our children and youth, for our low-income children, for our infants and toddlers, children and youth with disabilities, children and parents who rely on afterschool programs, kids who are learning traits and skills to better their future, and for our kids who are helping their peers get through challenging mental health crises. Rhode Island Kids Count looks forward to continuing to advocate for education funding for Rhode Island students at the federal, State, and local levels. These resources are essential for ensuring that all children have access to the high-quality education they need to succeed in school, career, and life.
Here’s the video of the press conference:
The transcript has been edited for clarity and (some) brevity:
Representative Seth Magaziner: We are here this morning because President Trump and his co-president, Elon Musk, continue to attack programs that help people, including here in Rhode Island. In the last few days, 3,500 employees of the Veterans Administration, which serves veterans with benefits and healthcare, were laid off. The United States Forest Service laid off thousands of people. People at the National Institute of Health were fired, including people working on research to cure cancer. And the list goes on and on.
But perhaps the most personal issue for many Rhode Islanders is the cuts to education they are discussing. They have talked about eliminating the Department of Education. Republicans just passed a budget bill out of committee in the House that would slash $60 billion from education to fund tax cuts for billionaires, and those impacts will be felt on the ground here in Rhode Island.
Senator Jack Reed: President Trump and the Republicans in Congress have declared war on public education. President Trump repeatedly said he wants to eliminate the Department of Education. Project 2025, their game plan, laid out an attack plan to do just that, and they’re implementing it. The architects of that plan are on the march. They’ve linked up with Elon Musk and DOGE, pillaging the federal government. Indeed, while Linda McMahon was at her confirmation hearing claiming that she would work with Congress to improve the power of education, Elon Musk and the DOGE Minions were at work firing people, taking back grants, compromising sensitive information, and laying the groundwork to dismantle the entire agency - and perhaps our entire democracy.
On Friday, the Department of Education threatened federal funding for all public schools, colleges, and universities if they did not eliminate any program that the Trump administration considers DEI (Diversity, Equity, and Inclusion) within 14 days. DEI is a slogan for “get rid of what we don’t like,” it could be anything. It is outrageous. As a reminder, by law, the Secretary of Education may not interfere with the content that schools teach or academic standards. They said they’re ignoring that law. Trump and Musk ignore every law, and the courts will decide it. We hope the Supreme Court will stand up rather than take a knee.
Meanwhile, the Republicans in Congress are putting together a budgetary blueprint that will cut trillions of dollars from the government services for the American people - all to pay for tax cuts [for billionaires].
They fired thousands of workers at the National Nuclear Security Agency. This is the agency responsible for the readiness of our nuclear weapons, which is key to our deterrence and the prevention of nuclear war. And then, a day later, they said, “Oh my God, we don’t have the technician to do this anymore.” They fired them, and now they’re trying to call them back.
The Republicans have told us in the Senate that there will be $9 trillion in domestic cuts. They don’t know what they are, but they will affect education, the Centers for Disease Control, and all the agencies.
It will hurt our kids, families., and the dynamic of this country. Working people suffer the most because they won’t get the tax cut. They will find out that they can’t feed their children with the SNAP program or place their mother in a Medicaid-supported nursing home.
This is terrible, and we are determined to fight against it.
What will Rhode Island lose in terms of education? We currently spend $137 million to support our public schools in Rhode Island, including over $58 million for students with disabilities. I challenge any school District in this State to provide the kind of Individuals with Disabilities Education Act (IDEA) education without federal money. $9.5 million for career and technical schooling. That’s one of the most significant issues we have. How do we get workers into the Electric Boat? We’ve started invigorating our career and technical training, and federal money helps. They want to cut $95 million from Pell Grants. That means that working families will have to make a hard decision. Can we afford to send our child to school? Why not? We don’t have a Pell Grant.
What they’re doing is not to improve this country. It is to make Trump feel better, and that’s unfortunate. We all know that education is the engine that drives this country, our prosperity, and our community.
Seth and I are here to not only send a warning but also to tell you we will do everything we can to stop this, but it will take a gargantuan effort. Ultimately, it’s going to take my colleagues on the other side, Republicans, to wake up and say, “This ain’t American.”
Representative Magaziner: I want to take a step back here. People need to understand that without federal support, the public education system in Rhode Island would be crippled. We depend on federal funding to make sure that there are enough teachers in classrooms, that students with disabilities get the support that they need to meet their potential, fund career and technical education programs that employers in Rhode Island depend on for a high-quality workforce, and Pell Grants, which thousands of Rhode Island families depend on to be able to afford higher education. Without this federal funding, public education in Rhode Island would be irreparably harmed, which means that children in Rhode Island would be irreparably harmed.
Children in Rhode Island have been through so much already. They’ve been through the pandemic and school closures. Families are fighting inflation. The last thing that children in Rhode Island need is for their funding to be cut, their teachers to be laid off, and their programs to be canceled. Their shot at higher education will be taken off the table because Donald Trump and Elon Musk want to pay for more tax cuts for billionaires. It’s not fair to the students.
Two other quick points. In addition to being wrong and cruel, the cuts that Donald Trump and Elon Musk are trying to make to public education are illegal. Congress created the Department of Education. It exists in law. President Trump doesn’t get to eliminate a department that Congress has established under the law. As Senator Reed alluded to, President Trump is not allowed under the law to put ideological litmus tests on funding for public schools. No law permits the President to say, “We’re not going to give funding to Rhode Island schools because we don’t like their curriculum.”
So this action is wrong. It’s also illegal. Finally, they’re behaving in an incompetent way. Elon Musk and his army of teenage tech bros have no idea how the federal government works. They fired the people in charge of keeping our nuclear weapons safe, then realized they messed up and tried to rehire them but couldn’t find them because their email access had been cut off. That’s just incompetence. They’re not even very good at what they’re trying to do. I saw a report yesterday that they just canceled a program that helps high school students with disabilities transition into the workplace. Still, because that program had the word transition in the job description, they thought it meant something else. Incompetence.
It’s wrong, cruel, illegal, and incompetent. However, as Senator Reed said, we will not stop fighting for Rhode Island children.
It starts by getting the word out and ensuring people understand that if these cuts happen, there will be fewer teachers, bigger class sizes, fewer programs, less CTE, and a less talented workforce for employers. We need to get the word out because parents, students, and teachers will ultimately be the most effective voices in pushing back.
Angélica Infante-Green, Rhode Island Commissioner of Elementary and Secondary Education: These last few weeks have been incredibly difficult. Every day, we wait for another notification. We don’t know what that will be, and we are here today because many of us are unclear on what this means. We don’t know what these broad executive orders mean.
We sit and huddle daily to try to understand our confusion. Every day, we meet with the Rhode Island Department of Education (RIDE) to determine how this impacts us, our teachers, and our students.
We don’t know.
I also have the honor of meeting with my colleagues across the nation who are also wondering what we will do.
There’s a lot of chaos and confusion. It feels like we’re in the middle of a storm, but here in Rhode Island, we’re in the center. We must be calm and direct and express what this means to everyone.
I want everyone to understand that about 15% of our budget comes from the federal government, which is $275 million. It’s a lot of money, especially for Rhode Island. Among this are $65 million in Title One funding, $60 million for individuals with disabilities (IDEA )for our differently abled students, $48 million for school nutrition funding, and $11 million for CTE programs.
Some might say, “Well, that doesn’t impact my child.” Well, guess what? It will impact every student in Rhode Island.
We have been moving forward in Rhode Island... This proposal serves to harm our progress - our foundation for education. This foundation is extremely important if we want a robust Rhode Island. When discussing Title I, you’re discussing low-income students getting additional funding. When we talk about nutrition, I don’t need to tell you that it is school lunch. Regarding Career and Technical Education (CTE), we have been front and center, ensuring our kids get a high school diploma and a credential. That is what is going to push Rhode Island forward.
I want to be clear that the money from the federal government goes directly to our school districts. We’re not paying attention if we think we won’t feel the impact. We rely on the United States Department of Education for world-class expertise and assistance in overseeing the enforcement of critical laws and safeguards that protect our children. This is not just an agency that doles out funds.
This is our education system being put at risk. This is not a time for us to be silent, not to look the other way, but to speak up and understand, regardless of what party you are a part of. Our education should be hands-off today and tomorrow.
Our mission, by State and federal laws, is to ensure that all students can learn and thrive in welcoming, safe, and supportive environments. We will do whatever it takes for the future. Here in Rhode Island, we’re going to keep moving forward. Please don’t mess with Rhode Island students because we’ll await you.
Mary Barden, Executive Director of the National Education Association Rhode Island (NEARI): Approximately 90% of Rhode Island students - and 95% of students with disabilities - learn in our public schools. Eliminating the Department of Education is equivalent to giving up on our future. Our students need more opportunities, resources, and protections - not less.
Let’s be clear: this will have a very real impact on all students across Rhode Island, especially lower-income students in rural, suburban, and urban communities. It will steal resources from our most vulnerable students, increase class sizes, cut job training programs, make higher education more expensive and out of reach for middle-class families, take away special education services for students with disabilities, and gut student civil rights protections.
As I speak with educators and parents around Rhode Island, they tell me they want smaller class sizes. Hence, students get more individualized attention, nutritious meals so they can focus in class instead of going hungry, and, more than ever, more access to mental health support. Eliminating the Department of Education puts all these critical resources at risk.
The U.S. Department of Education was founded to help realize the promise of a quality public school for all students, regardless of where they live, their skin color, gender identity, sexual orientation, immigration status, or how much their family makes. Proposals to eliminate or defund it will force our students and public schools to pay the cost.
As a 20-year classroom teacher here in RI, I know the positive impact of Department of Education funding and programs on students. All students across Rhode Island benefit from programs the Department of Education runs. Students and families who receive support to attend college and vocational schools could lose Pell Grants or federal student loans, leading to more students dropping out, fewer choices, and fewer family options. Students with disabilities and their families would lose the support they need at school and home. Cuts to afterschool and summer programs will undo educators’ progress with tutoring, reduce chronic absenteeism, and provide skill-building programs.
More than 63,000 students in Rhode Island receive Title I funds from the Department of Education. Title I funds provide additional academic support services like tutoring, afterschool programs, and teacher training to help close achievement gaps and ensure all children receive a quality education. Rhode Island public schools would lose approximately $65 million in vital funding used to hire teachers and other school support staff who support our students in need. Losing federal dollars would further exacerbate the educator shortages plaguing Rhode Island public schools, causing students’ class sizes to balloon.
Special education programs could suffer from losing over $58 million in IDEA funding for Rhode Island students.
Rhode Island educators and parents expect elected officials to prioritize our students’ futures and strengthen our public schools so that they remain a cornerstone of opportunity and equality. Public schools & the Department of Education exist because
students, with and without disabilities, in every State and neighborhood have the right to an education that imparts academic lessons, life skills, and a lifelong love of learning.
People like Linda McMahon and Donald Trump have starved our public schools of the resources students deserve for years. I can tell you as sure as I stand here: educators and parents will not be silent as a handful of anti-public education politicians force our students to pay for tax cuts with their futures. 90% of students in America learn in a public school classroom, but I want you to think about just one student you know and the opportunities that they deserve. Still, I will lose if the Trump Administration guts public education.
Maribeth Calabro, President, Rhode Island Federation of Teachers: The United States Department of Education is a cornerstone of our nation’s commitment to equal opportunity, academic excellence, and the advancement of future generations. Any effort to dismantle or eliminate this vital institution is misguided and a direct threat to the principles of equity, innovation, and national progress. I stand unequivocal opposition to any proposal to close the United States Department of Education, as doing so would have catastrophic consequences for students, educators, and the broader American society.
The American Dream is instrumental in ensuring that every child, regardless of socioeconomic background, race, ability, class, sexual orientation, or gender identification, can receive and access quality public education. It upholds and enforces civil rights protections, preventing discrimination and promoting inclusivity in schools nationwide.
Without federal oversight, students in marginalized communities would face even greater disparities in resources, teacher quality, and educational opportunities. Accountability is another function of the Department of Education. Through research, data collection, and oversight, the agency helps to ensure that schools meet academic standards, address learning differences and diverse abilities, and continuously approve student outcomes. Without federal accountability, states would have free reign to set wildly different educational policies, leading to a fragmented and inequitable system where a child’s education is determined more by their zip code than by their potential. Moreover, the Department plays a crucial role in higher education. As a mom of a child going into higher education next fall, I can see the impact this blanket decimation of the Department of Education will have on students going into higher education. The Department of Education oversees loans and grant programs for millions of students.
Some here relied on financial programs like Pell Grants to afford college and pursue their dreams. The elimination of the Department of Education would threaten these programs, make higher education more inaccessible for countless Americans, and stifle our country’s economic competitiveness. Education is the foundation of a thriving economy, a strong democracy, and a just society. The United States Department of Education is not a bureaucratic obstacle. It’s a lifeline for students, families, and educators nationwide. To dismantle it would be to abandon our nation’s commitment to ensuring that every American, regardless of background, has access to a quality public education.
We must resist any attempt to weaken or abolish the Department of Education. Instead, we should focus on strengthening and reforming it to serve our students and educators in the 21st century. Our children, communities, and nation deserve nothing less than a robust and fully supported Department of Education. Our children are counting on us to be their voice to stop this nonsense.
Representative Magaziner: Donald Trump and Elon Musk don’t have to worry about sending their kids to a great school. The billionaires that Donald Trump empowers and listens to - their kids are going to be fine. However, these cuts will hurt children in Rhode Island and all across the country who depend on public education. It’s important to understand why this is happening. This is happening because Donald Trump, Elon Musk, and the billionaires are trying to cut public education, healthcare, and nutrition to pay for more tax cuts for billionaires. It is wrong and cruel.
Reporter: Senator Reed, many on the left, and many who rallied in front of your office called on the Rhode Island delegation to do more, to use more of its power as elected officials, to try to stop the Trump agenda. What are you doing in Congress to slow these things down? Do you plan to use procedural tools to gum up the work or slow this?
Senator Reed: We want to draw attention to this disastrous policy and the President’s and others’ misrepresentations. I led the opposition to the Defense Secretary, Pete Hegseth, and we came close. It took the Vice President of the United States to break the tie and get him confirmed. I believe he’s the first or second cabinet official in many years who required a Vice Presidential vote. We sent a signal with that, and some of my Republican colleagues joined me... We signaled that we expect confidence, character, and a commitment to the Constitution of the United States. That’s one thing.
The other thing is we’ve taken time to slow down these confirmations deliberately. The Director of the United States Office of Management and Budget (OMB), Russell Vaught, is completely committed to ignoring the law and doing whatever Donald Trump wants. We took all of our 30 hours on the floor of the Senate talking about the danger he will pose to our country, not just in education, but OMB controls every aspect of funding in the federal government. We’re going to keep it up. We’re here today in a similar spirit, to alert people about what’s happened and to join our colleagues who are on the front line.
Representative Magaziner: As far as the House of Representatives goes, our Democratic House leader, Hakeem Jeffries, talked about this effort as having three buckets: litigation, public opinion, and legislation.
As we all know, more than 50 lawsuits have been filed against the Trump Administration for their illegal actions, particularly regarding executive orders and the illegal firing of federal employees in key roles. The courts have found that members of Congress don’t have standing to sue the Executive for ignoring the law. However, once those cases reach the appellate level, members of Congress are allowed to file amicus briefs, and our leader on the Judiciary Committee, Jamie Raskin, is leading an effort to prepare amicus briefs so that we can weigh in when those court cases proceed to the appellate level.
The public opinion bucket is what we’re doing today. In some ways, that’s the most powerful tool we have at our disposal because we need our Republican colleagues to feel the heat and to hear from their constituents that they don’t want education, healthcare, or the Veterans Administration cut. I’ve been doing more social media and press events in the last three weeks than at any point in my political career. That’s true with many Democrats. We’re trying to do our best to raise the public alarm.
On legislation, particularly in the House, the minority has limited rights to gum up the works. Our leadership has established a legislative strategy committee, which I am on. We are working on some things, but primarily, what we can do and what we will take opportunities to do is force our Republican colleagues in the House to go on the record and to take votes - up or down - on whether they support some of these extreme and unwise things that the Administration is doing because I think they’re not going to like that. They’re going to say to the Administration, “You’ve got to knock some of this off because you’re putting us in a tough spot as Republicans in Congress.”
So, recognizing the limitations of being in the minority, we are making an active effort to push back on all those fronts and working hard on it.
Reporter: Are you open to shutting down the government and not voting to keep the government open?
Representative Magaziner: Let me be clear on this: Republicans control the House, the Senate, and the White House. If there is a government shutdown, it is on them. They have the power to keep the government open. If they can’t, when they control the House, the Senate, and the White House, that is their shutdown. Suppose they want to negotiate the budget with us. In that case, it makes sense that we ask, “If we pass a budget, what guarantees do we have that the White House will honor that budget since they seem to be taking the position that they can ignore any budget that Congress passes?” But any decision for there to be a government shutdown will be a Republican decision since they’re the ones who are in charge.
Senator Reed: Donald Trump and Elon Musk are already shutting down the government. They’re just shutting down the parts they don’t like and doing that illegally. It’s all against the law. The onus is on the Republicans to stand up and to follow the law, and they’re not. That’s outrageous.
Reporter: Some would suggest that with the Republicans in control of the House, Senate, and White House, strongly worded letters and legislation won’t take you very far.
Senator Reed: You have to inform the public. You have to rally the public, and you have to point out that it affects them directly. I thought Paige’s points were excellent. This is not just about these programs in inner City schools - this touches every school District in the State, and they’re struggling right now - even the wealthy ones - to find the money to keep their education system going. And when you take 6% away way, that will result in laid-off teachers and poor education. We must get that message out because many people say, “You’ve got to get rid of the waste.” As I said before, they’re not looking for waste; they’re looking for money to give to the richest people in this country.
Reporter: Commissioner, are school districts contacting RIDE to ask if they repeal their DEI policies? Have you heard of any specific districts that have made changes in response to either the DEI order or the transgender athlete order?
Commissioner Infante-Green: No, not at this point. As I said earlier, we are trying to make sense of it. This has to go through Congress. Some procedures need to happen. Executive orders don’t mean we have to do those things right away. We’re looking at what the impact could be. We’re not moving away from any of that at this point.
Reporter: So you’re going to ignore the 14-day threat?
Commissioner Infante-Green: I didn’t say I would ignore anything, but we must consider what that means. What is clear to me is that there is a lack of understanding of what DEI is. We must unpack what that means because it even goes into mental health. It goes into areas that people overlook and are essential to our community, kids, educators, and what we do daily.
Reporter: What things fall under the DEI umbrella that people might not consider?
Commissioner Infante-Green: Our differently abled students fall under that. When we talk about gender, when we talk about young ladies, when we talk about women, we talk about different areas that are important to all of us. When they are thinking about DEI, they’re thinking about race, or they’re thinking about what they envision as equity because equity is important to everyone. It should be important to everybody. It is important to every single person here in Rhode Island. It is challenging when we start unpacking what DEI is because we have ensured that it is in the fabric of everything that we do, and that’s important for us. When we start talking about removing DEI, we are removing the fabric of what we’re standing on in our education system.
I don't remember which school had which motto, but my junior high and high schools both had mottos over the assembly room stages: "As the children are taught, so the world will become," and "The foundation of every state is the education of its youth." What kind of world will we have when children are not taught and our youth is not educated?