Public Education at Stake in November Elections

Teachers, parents and grassroots leaders gathered last week in New Haven with U.S. Representatives Rosa DeLauro and Adelita Grijalva (Arizona CD 7) in the fight to save public education against MAGA cuts and privatization.

“In March, the president directed the administration to dismantle the department of education, and they are working furiously at this,” said DeLauro. They’ve reduced the workforce in half and transferred core functions to other agencies. President Trump’s proposed 2027 budget would slash more than $8 billion from public education,” she warned.

“I served on a school board for 20 years,” said Congresswoman Grijalva. “We’re seeing a systematic starvation of our public education system. We have people making decisions about investing in public schools who do not send their kids to public school,” she said.

“Our job is to make sure we fully fund our public education system.” Connecting that to harrassment from ICE and border patrol in her community, she said “people are then often afraid to go to work, and take their kids to school.”

“As a member of the Education and Workforce Committee, I will continue working with Congresswoman DeLauro to hold these federal officials accountable,” she said. “We need to protect public education. We have to make sure every student and family has the same opportunity to reach their dream.”

The Federal Scholarship Tax Credit, a federal voucher scheme the Trump administration is implementing in many states, is based on Arizona’s voucher program.

“Arizona is the capital of vouchers,” Grijalva said. “We lost one billion dollars from our public education system in the very first year of vouchers, and it’s going to be more,” she said warning that some members of Congress want to expand that across the country. “And what starves is our public education system.” she said.

“Let’s learn from Arizona about what we should be on guard against here in Connecticut,” said New Haven Federation of Teachers President Leslie Blatteau. “Vouchers haven’t worked in Arizona, so why go there in Connecticut, or anywhere else? It’s the Trojan horse to dismantle our public schools long term.”