News for You
- Call your congressperson to tell them what public schools mean to you.
- Schedule a visit with your congressperson during the March recess.
- Schedule a meeting with your congressperson to urge them to oppose federal vouchers.
- Toolkits ready to use!
Shifts seem to come on a near daily basis with the new Congress and presidential administration, executive actions and federal education policy positions.
This federal action update provides concrete actions you can take now to support students and public schools. For more about IDRA’s federal policy work, please see our Vision for Education in 2025 and Beyond.
IDRA believes in the inherent value of all children, the power and promise of public education as a critical public good, and the right of every child living in this country to attend an excellent public school. We are committed to achieving equal educational opportunity for every child through strong public schools that prepare all students to succeed in college and life.
Call your congressperson to tell them what public schools mean to you
The new administration has begun acting on its promise to weaken the U.S. Department of Education, which will have disastrous consequences for students and public schools across the country.
Last week, the department announced its plan to lay off approximately half its employees, including program staff in K-12 and higher education, attorneys in the Office for Civil Rights, and every expert in the Office of English Language Acquisition (OELA). Many are reporting that an executive order to further diminish the work of the department is forthcoming.
Professional staff in the department play a critical role in ensuring the distribution and oversight of federal funds, collecting and analyzing data, protecting students’ civil rights, and ensuring equal educational opportunities for all children, particularly vulnerable students.
You can contact your congressperson to let them know:
- Why you support public education and the impact public schools have on students in your community.
- Why federal funding, programs, and oversight are critical tools to protect all students, including those with disabilities, emergent bilingual students (English learners), immigrant students, LGBTQ+ students, and students of color.
- Why laying off staff across the U.S. Department of Education weakens the ability of the department to fulfill its critical functions and ultimately hurts millions of students across the country.
- Why you believe federal programs for students should be protected in the budget and should continue to be administered by the U.S. Department of Education.
- What you believe should be done to strengthen the U.S. Department of Education and ensure it is equipped to fulfill its mandate to serve U.S. students and schools.
You can use these state-by-state factsheets created by the American Federation for Teachers (AFT) detailing how much funding your state receives from the U.S. Department of Education for particular K-12 and higher education programs.
This table from the National Education Association (NEA) provides information on how much funding each state stands to lose for students with disabilities, poor children, Pell grants, and career and technical education grants should certain funding administered by the department be eliminated.
Schedule a visit with your congressperson during the March recess
Between March 15 and March 23, members of Congress return to their home districts for what is known as “congressional recess.” The Leadership Conference developed this toolkit with tips to help you request an in-district meeting with your member of Congress, organize around an existing town hall, or plan a town hall yourself.
Schedule a meeting with your congressperson to urge them to oppose federal vouchers
The new administration and many in Congress are attempting to advance a federal voucher program. The “Educational Choice for Children Act” (ECCA) proposes giving a dollar-for-dollar tax credit to people who donate money to voucher programs. This would deny the public those tax dollars and instead funnel them to organizations and individual families to use for private school and other educational expenses.
A federal voucher would negatively impact public education in all states, including those that have not elected to adopt a state voucher program.
We must protect and increase funding to ensure public schools are able to provide every child with an excellent education. This month marks the 52nd anniversary of the U.S. Supreme Court decision in Rodríguez v. San Antonio. In that case, the court failed to address Texas’ inherently unjust school funding system, claiming that children in the United States do not have a fundamental right to an education guaranteed by the U.S. Constitution. That decision sparked the decades-long legal and policy fight for fair public school funding in states across the country – a fight that continues today.
You can contact your congressperson and urge them to protect funding for public schools and oppose federal vouchers in the budget and in any proposed legislation.
The National Coalition for Public Education developed useful advocacy materials. Use this ECCA brief to understand more about federal voucher legislation and this short ECCA overview to develop your talking points.
For more information about the harms of vouchers, see IDRA’s Stop Vouchers site, resources from the Public Funds Public Schools project from the Education Law Center, and the Truth in Education Funding website from the Partnership for the Future of Learning.
For more information about IDRA’s work, please contact Morgan Craven, J.D., IDRA’s National Director of Policy, Advocacy, and Community Engagement at morgan.craven@idra.org.
