As back-to-school season kicks off, the Trump Administration has gutted the Department of Education, and his Republican allies in Congress have followed suit by slashing funds for our public schools. Locally, GOP governors and state legislators are jamming through private school voucher bills paid for with public dollars. That means rollbacks to special education services, massive cuts to Title I grants that support low-income students, and reduced civil rights enforcement in public schools. And that’s not all – the Republican budget bill slashes funding for free meals for students while ICE is showing up on playgrounds and at school drop-offs. Public education has long been an ideological battleground for many on the right, but now in Trump 2.0, we risk having authoritarians teach a version of America where most of our children will be footnotes. This is straight out of the authoritarian playbook - Step 4. When public education fails, people start to believe nothing works, and they start to forget what a functioning democracy is supposed to do: deliver for the people.That’s why this week on Assembly Required, Stacey Abrams brings in the experts to break down Trump’s slash-and-burn agenda and what it means for the people who feel it most: schoolchildren. First, she talks with Christina Rojas, a veteran public school speech-language pathologist, about what’s really happening on the ground. Then, she’s joined by Becky Pringle, president of the National Education Association, and Sheria Smith, President of AFGE 252 & attorney for the Office of Civil Rights, for a panel discussion.

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