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Statement

Our Kids Matter, Mr. President! America’s Moms Want a Strong U.S. Department of Education

March 6, 2025

Lisa Lederer, 202/371-1996

Statement of Kristin Rowe-Finkbeiner, Executive Director and CEO of MomsRising, the online and on-the-ground organization of more than one million mothers and their families, on the Trump administration’s impending Executive Order instructing Congress to close the U.S. Department of Education:

“America’s moms are horrified that President Trump is looking to shutter the U.S. Department of Education. Let’s be clear: Attacks on our public education system are attacks on our children and their future. Congress has the authority and the responsibility to quickly and decisively reject this destructive, counterproductive move.

“President Trump, Elon Musk, and their cronies are proposing this because they want the funds that are currently used to educate our kids to instead support tax cuts for greedy billionaires and corporations.That is abhorrent to moms around the country.

“America’s families depend on a federally supported, strong public education system to give the next generation the tools and resources to succeed. Defunding and/or closing the U.S. Department of Education would bring teacher layoffs, larger class sizes, and more schools without books and equipment and in disrepair. It would undermine civil rights protections that girls, students of color, and other students need. It would be as short-sighted as it is cruel, causing irreparable harm to children with disabilities, children in low-income families, and children poised to be the first in their families to go on to higher education – but it would also undermine our career and technical education system, our future workforce, our businesses, our STEM- and military-readiness, and more.

“Education is a pathway to opportunity and to a workforce, economy, and country that can thrive. Of course we support efficiency and eliminating fraud and waste, but we must continue investing in our kids so they have every opportunity to succeed. Closing the U.S. Department of Education would be insane.”

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MomsRising.org is an on-the-ground and online grassroots organization of more than a million people who are working to increase family economic security, stop discrimination against women and moms, and build a nation where businesses and families can thrive. Established in 2006, MomsRising and its members are organizing and speaking out to improve public policy and to change the national dialogue on issues that are critically important to America’s families, including criminal justice reform, immigration policy reform, and gun safety. MomsRising is working for paid family and medical leave, affordable, high quality childcare and early learning, and for an end to the wage and hiring discrimination which penalizes women — particularly moms and women of color — and so many others. MomsRising advocates for access to healthy food for all kids, health care for all, earned sick days, and breastfeeding rights so that all children can have a healthy start. MomsRising maintains a Spanish language website: www.MamásConPoder.org. Sign up online at www.MomsRising.org — and follow us on our blog, and on Twitter and Facebook.