For Massachusetts, a state grounded in values of ensuring all residents feel welcome, protected, and have equitable opportunities to thrive, the president’s agenda is devastating
May 06, 2025 by Jennie Williamson 
The first 100 days of a presidency are far more than a symbolic milestone — they are a bold declaration of intent, a mission statement that lays bare the values, priorities, and vision of a leader. In those early days, a president’s decisions reveal their commitment to the people — or their pursuit of power.
President Trump’s message is indisputable — and profoundly alarming. Instead of unity, we have division. Instead of progress, regression. Instead of hope, fear. His first 100 days have not laid the foundation for a better future; they have torn at the very fabric of our democracy, threatening decades of hard-fought social progress — especially for the most vulnerable among us.
For Massachusetts, a state grounded in values of ensuring all residents feel welcome, protected, and have equitable opportunities to thrive, the president’s agenda is devastating, and strikes directly at the growing, multicultural heart of our state. Beyond the skyline of Boston, the daily reality is that working families are struggling to remain in the middle class, facing a widening income gap that pushes stability further out of reach. Trump’s policies only widen these divides and threaten to undermine the myriad benefits and economic growth that our state has experienced as a direct result of our ability to attract and retain diverse talent from around the world.
Nowhere is the betrayal of values more apparent than in Trump’s relentless assault on public education. His first 100 days have been marked by the erosion of civil rights protections, cuts to critical school funding, and a climate of fear that has swept through immigrant communities. Dreams of higher education have been shattered. Families once drawn to the promise of America are distraught. Every day delivers a new blow: What critical funding for schools and children was slashed today? What civil rights will vanish tomorrow? What policy, cloaked in the language of “efficiency,” will gut equity at its core? Public education system is under siege. And the most vulnerable students — Black, Latino, low-income, multilingual learners, and students with disabilities — are squarely in the crosshairs.
In just a few short months, the Trump administration has stripped away essential protections from underserved students, pulling critical resources from programs that support our most vulnerable communities to fund proposed tax breaks for the ultra-wealthy — simultaneously weaponizing misinformation to justify a full-scale attack on diversity, equity, and inclusion (DEI). This isn’t just bad policy — it’s a betrayal of the American promise. This extreme right movement is so committed to its Project 2025 agenda that it’s willing to manipulate the truth and rewrite history in real-time.
This isn’t theoretical. It’s happening right now. And it’s hitting Massachusetts hard.
The Trump administration abruptly rescinded $106 million in COVID-relief funds allocated to Massachusetts schools. These dollars weren’t sitting idle — they were actively being used to fund mental health supports, improve school ventilation, and sustain tutoring programs in communities still reeling from the pandemic — which is especially critical as our students suffered greater learning losses during the pandemic and have been slower to recover academically compared to their peers in other states. Now, districts may be forced to borrow money or raise taxes, placing the burden on working families already struggling with food and housing insecurity ratcheted up by Trump’s tariffs.
Not to mention, the U.S. Supreme Court’s recent decision granted Trump’s emergency request to immediately terminate over 100 grants for federal teacher training programs. Why? Because they were allegedly “too focused on equity.” For Massachusetts, this translates to more than $6 million in cuts to various state-based programs — funds meant to support building robust educator pipelines, expanding educator capacity, and stabilizing schools facing urgent staffing shortages.
But the harm doesn’t stop at budget cuts. It’s deeper.
In a brazen act of hypocrisy, this administration is actively trying to dismantle the U.S. Department of Education while simultaneously threatening to withhold Title I funds — critical lifelines for students from low-income backgrounds and, frankly, all students who benefit from those funds for transportation and meal programs — unless districts eliminate DEI initiatives. So, federal oversight is bad unless it’s being used to coerce schools into abandoning programs that support students of color, LGBTQ+ youth, and other marginalized groups?
This is not about “freedom” or “local governance.” It’s about total control — of the narrative, of the curriculum, of whose stories get told. Banning books, whitewashing history, silencing conversations about inequality, and censoring free speech — this is the erasure of a public education system designed to serve all.
Without Title I funding, entire communities will feel the consequences, as schools are forced to make impossible choices on how to support their students with fewer resources. I see this daily in my work as the state director for EdTrust in Massachusetts, which convenes the Massachusetts Education Equity Partnership (MEEP). In districts from Brookline to Bridgewater-Raynham, we’re witnessing the direct fallout: DEI offices downsized or dismantled, staffing slashed, and critical supports disappearing under the weight of federal abandonment and pressure. Luckily, Massachusetts has fighters in its ranks, with the deliberate actions of our governor and attorney general in standing up for civil rights protections and reaffirming the legality and importance of DEI efforts.
The proposed dismantling of the Department of Education is a targeted effort to erode one of our nation’s last lines of defense for its youth. This department is not just a bureaucracy; it’s a civil rights watchdog. It exists to ensure that all students—regardless of race, disability, background, or income — have equal access to a quality education. Without its oversight, education equity becomes optional.
Will states continue to track disparities in school discipline, access to advanced coursework, and support for students with disabilities? Or will those injustices quietly disappear into the shadows — hidden by red tape, softened by rhetoric?
Massachusetts often tops the charts as a high-ranking education state. But that ranking masks the truth: large gaps persist for students of color, multilingual learners, and students from low-income backgrounds. Gutting federal oversight won’t close those gaps — it will widen them. And worse, it will make them easier to ignore.
The stakes are especially high if Congress bends to the administration’s demands and defunds critical education grants. The consequences in Massachusetts alone would be devastating.
These aren’t just numbers on a spreadsheet. They represent real students — real children — who rely on these supports not for advantage, but for survival in a system that too often overlooks them.
Defunding the Department of Education won’t fix what’s broken. It will eliminate the research and data, the accountability, and the protections that help us even see the cracks in the first place. But maybe that’s the point, isn’t it? What else can we conclude when NAEP is being scaled back and funding for the Institute of Education Sciences (IES) and the National Center for Education Statistics (NCES) is cut? These aren’t just budget cuts — they’re deliberate attempts to dismantle evidence and silence the truth about what our students truly need.
Across Massachusetts and the nation, students are finding it more challenging than ever to focus on learning. Classrooms, once spaces of growth and opportunity, have become battlegrounds fueled by fear, division, and dangerous culture wars. Instead of feeling safe and supported, too many young people now walk into school burdened with anxiety—not worrying about grades or friendships but about their very safety and the well-being of their families. And some are too afraid to even show up — at a time when chronic absenteeism is already a challenge in our state and we know attendance is critical for academic success.
This is the direct result of the Trump administration’s relentless wave of executive actions that have shattered the sense of security for undocumented, mixed-status, and immigrant communities. By permitting federal immigration arrests at schools, the administration directly endangered students and their families, forcing many to stay home out of fear. In Massachusetts, this fear is not imagined; it is reinforced daily by the grim examples of oppression surrounding them.
At the same time, LGBTQ+ students, who already endure discrimination and stigma, now confront unprecedented attacks on their rights and lives. In a cruel reversal of hard-won progress, President Trump signed executive orders banning transgender girls and women from participating in girls’ and women’s sports—sending a chilling message of exclusion and hostility. These young people, striving to live authentically and protect their mental health, are being met with escalating threats to their futures.
Meanwhile, our schools are left to grapple with the fallout. Rising absenteeism, confusion about communication protocols, and an urgent need for trauma-informed care reveal a system under siege. Childhood should be a time of innocence, learning, and discovery. Instead, too many students are forced to live in fear, to grow up too quickly, and to navigate a world marked by oppression and uncertainty.
Defunding the Department of Education won’t fix what’s broken. It will eliminate the research and data, the accountability, and the protections that help us even see the cracks in the first place. But maybe that’s the point, isn’t it?
The rumored elimination of Head Start, which serves as an essential resource for over 11,000 vulnerable children and families in Massachusetts, provides high-quality early education and comprehensive support to children from birth through age 5. This proposal is not only cruel but also financially irresponsible. For every dollar invested in high-quality early childhood programs like Head Start, we can expect to see returns ranging from $4 to $16 in the long term. These returns come in the form of better educational outcomes, higher earnings, and reduced social costs. Moreover, if this budget proposal is adopted, over 10,000 individuals will lose their jobs, either due to the loss of childcare or the elimination of their employment at Head Start.
We have decades of evidence showing that early childhood education promotes economic mobility, strengthens communities, and lessens the need for expensive interventions later on. Cutting a program that supports nearly a million children and families is not just a shortsighted decision; it represents a significant setback for future generations.
Through the federal budget reconciliation process, the Republican-led Congress is also considering several actions that could pose an existential threat to access and affordability in higher education. Proposals on the table include eliminating the Saving on a Valuable Education (SAVE) plan and implementing alternative plans, which would increase monthly payments for borrowers on average by $200 and provide no end in sight for relief, stalling economic growth while hurting borrowers and their families. Other proposals include eliminating key protections, such as the Borrower Defense to Repayment and Closed School Discharge regulations. These regulations are intended to provide relief to students cheated by their schools, but they will only leave students more vulnerable to poor outcomes and unmanageable debt without holding schools accountable for their actions.
In addition to legislative threats, the Trump administration has begun using federal grants, contracts, and accrediting agencies as levers to dismantle DEI efforts in higher education. Most notably, Harvard University recently filed a lawsuit against the administration,warning of the far-reaching consequences of new federal restrictions on research and academic freedom that would have a sweeping impact on colleges and universities across the nation. Major university alliances, including the Big Ten, are also mobilizing against these attacks, recognizing the profound implications for academic freedom and research funding. This coordinated federal effort could fundamentally reshape the landscape of higher education, particularly for institutions that seek to uphold the principles of academic freedom and create welcoming campus climates for all students.
Importantly, the Trump administration’s efforts to dismantle key education and civil rights protections are facing significant resistance. Across the country, legal challenges and public opposition are mounting, and Massachusetts leaders are spearheading the fight. A federal judge recently overturned the administration’s pause on grant funding, while 20 states have sued to block the dismantling of the Department of Education and the associated staff cuts. In Massachusetts, the Somerville school district and unions have filed their own lawsuit challenging these actions. A separate lawsuit is pending against the administration’s decision to eliminate income-driven repayment options for student loans. Meanwhile, protests have erupted nationwide, and Massachusetts Attorney General Andrea Campbell has sued the administration over threats to withhold funding from institutions that maintain DEI programs. Together, these efforts demonstrate a growing, coordinated resistance to policies that would undermine access, affordability, and equity in education.
We have an opportunity to push back. Here’s what can we do:
Let’s be clear: defunding public education is a political strategy. Students cannot be collateral damage. They aren’t disposable. They aren’t bargaining chips. They are the future of this country.
As the birthplace of the American Revolution, Massachusetts has always been the vanguard of resistance. That American spirit can live on if we stand together, speak out, and organize. We’re not powerless. Not only can we defend public education but also strengthen it.
May 20, 2025 by Allison Rose Socol, Ph.D. The Trump Administration’s decision to eliminate nearly $400 million in AmeriCorps grants and place 85% of AmeriCorps staff on administrative leave is deeply misguided
It would have a grave impact on justice-impacted students, who rely on crucial financial aid and grants and federal oversight of prison education programs
April 28, 2025 by Ivy Morgan Scaling back education data collections like NAEP and ERIC that help make schools better is another step that this administration is taking in the wrong direction
