In a statement released on Wednesday the National Education Association (NEA) Teachers and the American Federation of Teachers (AFT) the two largest teaching unions in the United States have said they will fight against the attacks on education being carried out by US President Donald Trump.
The two unions are standing up to a number of measures by Trump, who has put privatisation, dismantling the Department of Education, attacking immigrant students and families, abolishing civil rights, and restricting academic freedom at the core of his education agenda.
Trump has unleashed a series of directives that jeopardise the right to education in the United States, including an executive order to illegally funnel federal dollars to private schools and strip public school students of vital resources, gutting federal funding for students with disabilities, allowing immigration raids in school areas, targeting teachers for how they teach history, cutting research, and curbing funding for school lunches for vulnerable students.
Speaking on Wednesday, the (NEA) said: ‘Since Inauguration Day, the White House has issued reckless, destructive, and even illegal directives to destabilise public schools and target some of our most vulnerable students.’
This was echoed by the (AFT) whose president, Randi Weingarten, stated: ‘In the United States, we face an authoritarian threat unlike anything we have seen in our lifetimes. President Donald Trump is swiftly implementing destructive, dehumanising, and undemocratic dictates.’
Among the first steps taken by the new administration was to revoke a long-held policy against federal immigration raids in sensitive areas such as schools, hospitals, and churches.
Typically, these raids are carried out by Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) and often include using heavily armed personnel and military grade equipment.
Becky Pringle, NEA President and Education International Vice-President, said: ‘As educators, we are united in supporting every student – no matter the language they speak or their place of birth – and ensuring they have access to safe, welcoming public schools.
‘We remain committed to using the power and strength of the largest labour union in the country to ensure every public school is a safe space for every student, and to uphold the constitutionally protected right of all students to access a public education.’
These actions were also denounced by the AFT as permitting law enforcement to conduct raids on school grounds or in hospitals and clinics traumatises children and communities.
In a letter to Trump, Weingarten wrote: ‘Schools and hospitals are supposed to be safe and welcoming places.
‘A policy that allows law enforcement to destroy that environment will cause irreparable harm, indelibly scarring not only immigrant families, but all families.
‘These actions are traumatising to all children, especially the young ones, and will leave them with fear and worry about whether they’re next to be taken away.
‘They won’t want to go to school, and why would they when it doesn’t feel safe? This is cruelty.’
Since the new policy went into effect, school staff have reported a decline in student attendance as parents are afraid to send their kids to school.
Even extracurricular activities have suffered as there have been warnings that police could also board school buses to make arrests.
The United Teachers of Dade in Florida denounced the treatment of a science teacher who was detained by immigration authorities and then deported despite having a legal work permit.
Trade union members have also reported ICE raids in Native American territories, including the detention of several members of the Navajo Nation, an Indigenous group which has inhabited the land since approximately 1400.
In addition to the immigration measures, Trump is also taking action to privatise public education and promote school vouchers.
In a recent executive order, he directed several federal agencies to prioritise private and faith-based schools and redirect funds to promote voucher-based programmes.
Speaking in a separate statement on Tuesday, Pringle said: ‘Instead of stealing taxpayer money to fund private schools, we should focus on public schools – where 90 per cent of children, and 95 per cent of children with disabilities, in America, attend – not take desperately needed funds away from them.
‘If we are serious about doing what is best for students, let’s reduce class sizes to give our students more one-on-one attention and increase salaries to address the teacher and staff shortages.
‘The bottom line is vouchers have been a catastrophic failure everywhere they have been tried.’
In another executive order, Trump took direct aim at academic freedom and teacher autonomy, by pushing to deny funds to schools based on how they teach about issues such as systemic racism, slavery, and history.
He also used the executive order to penalise schools who provide services to transgender students. The order was widely denounced by educators and human rights organisations describing the measure as an attempt by the President to dictate what ‘local schools can teach and which type of students belong in our classrooms.’
Another attack on academic freedom came with a presidential order to freeze billions of dollars in research, much of which goes to funding science programmes and higher education institutions.
One of the agencies affected, the National Institutes of Health (NIH), funds more than 300,000 researchers at more than 2,500 universities and other research institutions.
Trump has also made it a top priority to abolish the Department of Education, and the vital services the institution provides.
Though he hasn’t issued an executive order in this regard yet, he has indicated publicly that this is his intention.
Meanwhile, five unions sued the Trump administration on Wednesday, seeking to block what they called the possible mass firing of hundreds of thousands of federal employees who resist pressure to accept buyouts.
In a complaint filed in Washington, DC federal court, the unions accused the White House and others in the Executive Branch of undermining Congress’ role in creating and funding a federal workforce, violating separation of powers principles.
The plaintiffs include the United Auto Workers (UAW), the National Treasury Employees Union (NTEU) , the National Federation of Federal Employees (NFEE), the International Association of Machinists and Aerospace Workers (IAM), and the International Federation of Professional and Technical Engineers (IFPTE).
Ten defendants were named, including Trump, the heads of agencies, the Department of Defence, Internal Revenue Service and Consumer Financial Protection Bureau, and the acting director of the Office of Personnel Management.
Last week, some unions sued the Trump administration to block the buyouts. On Monday, US District Judge George O’Toole in Boston kept in place a block of the buyout plan for federal employees, as he considers whether to impose it for a longer period of time.
The decision prevents Trump’s administration from implementing the buyout plan for now, giving a temporary victory to unions that have sued to stop it entirely.
