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THE WAR ON PUBLIC EDUCATION: TRUMP'S ATTACKS, TEACHERS' RESISTANCE, AND THE COWARDS IN BETWEEN
Mar 20, 2025
closertotheedge.substack.com/p/the-war-on-public-education-trumps?publication_id=3721088&post_id=…
Donald Trump doesn’t believe in fixing what’s broken. He believes in smashing things apart, tossing the pieces over his shoulder, and demanding a medal for “cleaning up the mess.” His latest stunt — signing an executive order to dismantle the Department of Education — is less about education reform and more about his pathological need to bulldoze anything that isn’t named after him. But this time, Trump isn’t just gutting a department. He’s declaring war on America’s public schools.
While Trump and his billionaire wrecking crew play demolition derby with the education system, teachers like Sarah Inama are fighting back in classrooms across the country. Inama’s crime? Hanging a poster that said "Everyone is welcome here." In Trump's America, even that is considered a threat.
THE TEACHERS WHO WALKED IN — AND THE PRESIDENT WHO WALKED OUT ON THEM
On March 19, 2025, teachers, students, and parents staged a coordinated nationwide walk-in. There were no burning effigies, no tear gas canisters, and no dramatic standoffs with riot cops. Just thousands of exhausted educators standing outside their schools, rallying for basic resources, and marching back inside together — a quiet but powerful act of defiance.
They weren’t asking for beachfront condos or private jets. They wanted schools to have functioning lunch programs. They wanted funding for special education. They wanted resources for students who can barely keep their heads above water. These are the kinds of things a halfway decent society would provide without question.
But Trump, in his infinite wisdom, decided that feeding poor kids and helping students with disabilities was a “woke” conspiracy. So the next morning, he tried to blow the whole system to bits.
TRUMP'S EXECUTIVE ORDER: DUMB, DANGEROUS, AND DESIGNED TO FAIL
Barely a day after teachers protested his reckless education policies, Trump marched to a podium, puffed out his chest like a prize turkey, and declared that he was dismantling the Department of Education.
The announcement itself was classic Trump — a blustery mess of half-baked bravado, buzzwords, and attacks on imaginary enemies. He claimed the department was “indoctrinating young people with inappropriate racial, sexual, and political material,” a talking point so lazy it could take a nap standing up.
In reality, Trump’s plan has nothing to do with protecting kids from “woke” teachers and everything to do with gutting resources for public schools so he can shovel more money into private institutions and religious academies. It’s a grift — plain and simple.
But here’s the part Trump isn’t telling you: his executive order can’t actually destroy the Department of Education. Dismantling a federal department requires Congressional approval, and with Republicans barely holding a 53-47 majority in the Senate, it’s unlikely to pass. Even if Senate Republicans back it, they’ll still need 60 votes to push it through — and they don’t have them.
But that’s not the point. The point is chaos. Trump doesn’t need his plan to succeed; he just needs to blow enough smoke to leave public schools scrambling for stability. Even if the department survives, the layoffs, funding freezes, and general panic will leave permanent scars.
ELON MUSK AND THE DOGE UNIT: WHEN TECH BROS PLAY GOD
Because no Trump disaster is complete without an insufferable billionaire grinning in the background, Elon Musk’s fingerprints are all over this mess. Musk now runs the Department of Government Efficiency (DOGE) — a bureaucratic wrecking ball designed to hack government agencies to pieces under the guise of “efficiency.”
DOGE’s latest victim is the Department of Education. Last week, Musk’s crew announced plans to lay off half the department’s workforce — roughly 2,100 employees — by March 21. Some were pushed into early retirement, others were fired outright, and those who remained were told to brace for reassignment or termination.
For Musk, this is just another billionaire side project — like building flamethrowers or renaming Twitter. But for teachers, parents, and students, this is a direct attack on the lifeline that keeps public schools afloat. Cutting thousands of employees doesn’t just kill bureaucratic bloat — it eliminates the people responsible for allocating funding, supporting special education programs, and managing federal student loans. It’s a bloodbath disguised as “efficiency,” and the people who will pay the price are the ones least able to afford it.
THE IDAHO INCIDENT: WHEN "WELCOME" BECAME A FIGHTING WORD
While Trump and Musk were busy turning the Department of Education into scrap metal, a sixth-grade teacher in Idaho found herself at the center of a controversy so absurd it belongs in a Coen brothers movie.
Sarah Inama, a World Civilizations teacher at Lewis and Clark Middle School, hung a poster in her classroom that said "Everyone is welcome here." That’s it. That’s the whole story.
But thanks to Idaho’s Dignity and Nondiscrimination in Public Education Act, her district claimed the message wasn’t “content-neutral” and could “create division.” Apparently, welcoming everyone is now considered political warfare in some corners of America.
Inama initially complied when her principal ordered her to remove the signs. But the whole thing felt wrong, so she quietly put one back up. For that act of defiance, the district threatened her job.
Inama has been teaching for over 15 years — a well-respected educator who has spent her career making sure students of all backgrounds feel safe in her classroom. She isn’t some activist chasing headlines — she’s a teacher who put kindness before cowardice. And for that, she’s now being treated like a political radical.
This wasn’t a controversy — it was a farce. Telling students they belong is not a radical political statement. Pretending otherwise is a coward’s way of pretending that inequality doesn’t exist. The people attacking Inama aren’t fighting for “neutrality.” They’re fighting to erase any reminder that marginalized kids exist at all.
THE COWARDS HIDING IN THE BACK
Trump may be the most obvious villain in this circus, but he’s far from the only one. The real power behind this crusade against public education is a coalition of cowardly politicians, bureaucrats, and opportunists who would rather watch the system collapse than risk alienating the far-right base.
The West Ada School District caved without a fight, pretending that a poster about kindness was some dangerous manifesto.
Idaho’s GOP lawmakers weaponized vague language like “neutrality” to bully teachers out of promoting even the most basic message of human decency.
Elon Musk, the self-styled genius who treats government institutions like science projects, is gutting programs that protect students and families — all while pretending it’s about “efficiency.”
And of course, Ron DeSantis and the other Republican governors who lined up behind Trump at his executive order signing, pretending that torching public schools was some grand act of heroism.
These people aren’t leaders — they’re parasites, feeding off fear and confusion while pretending their war on education is some noble crusade.
THE REALITY CHECK
Trump’s executive order will probably die in the Senate, but the damage is already done. Schools are losing funding. Teachers are being forced to choose between their jobs and their principles. And the students — the ones these cowards claim to care about — are being abandoned in the crossfire.
But here’s what Trump’s crew doesn’t understand: teachers are tougher than he thinks. They’re used to fighting uphill battles — surviving broken HVAC systems, shrinking budgets, and overcrowded classrooms. They’ve been fighting for their students long before Trump wobbled into politics, and they’ll still be fighting long after he’s dragged out of office like a screaming toddler in a Walmart.
The teachers aren’t just fighting for themselves. They’re fighting for their students — and for the soul of public education itself. They’re still standing. And they’ll need all the help they can get.
THE WAR ON PUBLIC EDUCATION: TRUMP'S ATTACKS, TEACHERS' RESISTANCE, AND THE COWARDS IN BETWEEN
closertotheedge.substack.com
Donald Trump doesn’t believe in fixing what’s broken.
Pro-Palestinian Activists Sue U.C.L.A. Over Encampment Attack
The lawsuit says the university did not protect the activists from counterprotesters. Jewish students are also suing the university, saying it did not protect them from pro-Palestinian demonstrators.
www.nytimes.com/2025/03/20/us/protesters-ucla-lawsuit.html?searchResultPosition=1
By Anemona Hartocollis
March 20, 2025, 4:37 p.m. ET
Pro-Palestinian activists are suing the University of California, Los Angeles, accusing it of allowing pro-Israel counterprotesters to terrorize and assault people at an encampment set up on campus last spring.
The pro-Palestinian camp became a major flashpoint in the conflict over the war in Gaza and over how universities responded. The demonstrators have accused the school and various police forces of failing to protect them and shutting down the camp without legal justification, after it was attacked by pro-Israel activists over the course of several hours one night in April.
But Jewish students said the university allowed the camp to stay for days, even though it had created a hostile environment and prevented them from entering some parts of campus.
The new lawsuit, announced on Thursday, came the same week the Trump administration joined a separate lawsuit filed by Jewish students and a Jewish professor, in June, accusing the university of failing to protect them from the pro-Palestinian activists. The administration says it is also investigating complaints of antisemitism at a growing list of universities, including U.C.L.A., through a federal task force.
The new complaint was filed on behalf of 35 pro-Palestinian activists, including students, faculty members, legal observers, journalists and sympathizers. It also names 20 people as defendants who are described as members of a “rioting mob.”
Filed in superior court in Los Angeles County, the lawsuit seeks monetary damages for physical and psychological injuries suffered by the protesters.
According to the suit, the university’s administration allowed pro-Israel counterprotesters to mount a large jumbotron near the pro-Palestinian encampment, which broadcast “a loop of clips of graphic descriptions of rape and sexual violence, sounds of gunshots, screaming babies, clips of President Biden pledging unconditional support for Israel, and extremely loud amplified music,” including a children’s song that the lawsuit says was used to torture Palestinian prisoners.
The noise continued during the night and seeped into classrooms during the day, according to court papers.
Then, on April 30, the lawsuit says, counterprotesters, some in Guy Fawkes-like masks, some draped in Israeli flags, attacked the camp in the middle of the night. They sprayed chemical irritants into people’s eyes and pulled down metal and wooden barricades, using them as weapons.
The lawsuit also says that attackers threw fireworks into the encampment, and that several people went to the hospital for injuries.
All the while, the lawsuit says, U.C.L.A.’s administration, the campus police, the Los Angeles police and the state highway patrol stood by passively and ignored the pro-Palestinian group’s pleas for help.
Stett Holbrook, a spokesman for the University of California president’s office, said that the university had instituted reforms to promote safety and combat harassment and discrimination systemwide. “Violence of any kind has no place at U.C.,” he said in a statement. Highway patrol and the Los Angeles police said they would not comment on pending litigation.
As the violence escalated, private security officers fled the area, the lawsuit says, and it took hours for them to be replaced by the police. The attack continued for nearly five hours, from about 10:30 p.m. to about 3:15 a.m.
“It was immediately apparent that there was not a semblance of protection for the physical safety of the encampment members, and the mob had successfully transformed a peaceful, interfaith community into a site of horror,” court papers say.
According to the suit, many of the counterprotesters were not students but community members, including a Beverly Hills jeweler, a Laguna Beach attorney and a Los Angeles teenager, who are named as defendants. Many could not be reached or did not respond to requests for comment. One who responded, David Merabi, an attorney in Los Angeles, said he is 70 and has back problems and was not at the encampment.
“Those were adult, grown members of the community,” Thomas B. Harvey, the lead lawyer in the case, said on Thursday, adding, “I think it’s a totally different understanding of who’s in that attack.” The Council on American-Islamic Relations California is also providing legal assistance on the case.
Less than 12 hours after the attack, the police disbanded the encampment, and in doing so, according to the lawsuit, subjected protesters to a new round of violence, including being shot at with rubber bullets, beaten with batons, wrestled to the ground and restrained. The police raid resulted in more than 200 arrests.
One of the plaintiffs, Thistle Boosinger, was beaten by the counterprotesters with a metal rod that shattered her hand and severed a nerve, hurting her career as a drummer, according to the complaint.
Jakob Johnson, who graduated from U.C.L.A. last year, was shot in the chest with a rubber bullet by a police officer standing less than 10 feet away, the complaint says. He suffered heart and lung injuries and depression, and had to withdraw from law school, the complaint says.
Mr. Harvey said the plaintiffs had identified the counterprotesters by analyzing a CNN report on the violence that night, which captured some names and images. The lawsuit notes that none of the people who attacked the encampment were arrested.
On Monday, the Justice Department filed a statement of interest in the separate lawsuit filed by Jewish students. That lawsuit accused pro-Palestinian protesters of setting up checkpoints on campus to block people who supported the existence of the state of Israel. In a preliminary injunction in August, a federal judge said the checkpoints were “abhorrent” to the constitutional right of religious freedom, and ordered the university to protect Jewish students.
“The statement of interest is part of the task force’s nationwide effort to combat antisemitism in all of its forms,” the Trump administration said.
A year after the disbanding of the encampment, the protest activity continues, though more quietly.
About two dozen protesters gathered at U.C.L.A. for a second day on Wednesday to call on the university to divest from money tied to Israel, and to call for a public meeting with the University of California Board of Regents. They chanted, banged on drums and held a sign saying, “Keep your eyes on Palestine.”
Jesus Jiménez contributed reporting. Sheelagh McNeill contributed research.
Anemona Hartocollis is a national reporter for The Times, covering higher education.More about Anemona Hartocollis
Pro-Palestinian Activists Sue U.C.L.A. Over Encampment Attack
www.nytimes.com
The lawsuit says the university did not protect the activists from counterprotesters. Jewish students are also suing the university, saying it did not protect them from pro-Palestinian demonstrators.www.msn.com/en-us/news/us/georgetown-university-researcher-detained-by-ice-sources-say/ar-AA1BhfZ…
Georgetown University researcher in U.S. on student visa detained by ICE
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A Georgetown University researcher was detained by immigration authorities earlier this week.www.mercurynews.com/2023/04/22/bill-to-provide-17000-for-those-opting-out-of-public-schools-defea…
www.mercurynews.com
If passed, Senate Bill 292 would have established a fund for students who opt out of attending public schools that is equivalent to the amount the state spends on each student every year — ar…www.commondreams.org/opinion/columbia-university-protests?fbclid=IwY2xjawJHLzNleHRuA2FlbQIxMQABHZ…
www.commondreams.org
A Columbia alumna renounced her 1986 master’s degree over the university expelling, suspending, and revoking the degrees of pro-Palestine student protesters.www.msn.com/en-us/money/careers/kenyan-teachers-among-4-000-stranded-in-us-after-abrupt-end-of-sc…
Kenyan Teachers Among 4,000 Stranded in US After Abrupt End of Scholarship
www.msn.com
Thousands of international students, including Kenyan teachers pursuing advanced studies in the U.S. under the prestigious Fulbright Scholarship, have been left stranded in the country. This follows a…www.msn.com/en-us/news/us/students-at-military-bases-around-world-resist-trump-s-dei-crackdown/ar…
Students at military bases around world resist Trump’s DEI crackdown
www.msn.com
Student-led walkouts have occurred at schools for U.S. military families across the world, with a larger coordinated protest being planned.www.msn.com/en-us/news/us/rules-aren-t-clear-anymore-trump-crackdown-on-student-protesters-sends-…
www.msn.com
Last weekend’s arrest of Mahmoud Khalil, a Palestinian refugee whose green card was revoked over his involvement in demonstrations at Columbia University, is having a chilling effect on college c…www.msn.com/en-us/news/politics/proposed-bill-would-require-ten-commandments-in-pennsylvania-scho…
Proposed bill would require Ten Commandments in Pennsylvania schools
www.msn.com
In June of 2024, Louisiana approved its own version of the bill.www.msn.com/en-us/news/us/teacher-ordered-to-remove-signs-from-classroom-including-one-saying-eve…
Teacher ordered to remove signs from classroom, including one saying ‘Everyone is welcome here’
www.msn.com
An Idaho teacher is in a standoff with her own school district after officials ordered her to remove classroom signs, including one that reads, “Everyone is welcome here.”