MAGA ATTACKS on Teachers and Schools

Show your solidarity with teachers in the face of Republican attacks on public education!

This week, the Utah Education Association, the state's largest teachers union, sued the state in hopes of shutting down a Republican-led voucher program that could reroute more than $82 million of taxpayer money away from public schools and Utah's students. The union president called it a "deliberate undermining of public schools." Before 2021, Utah ranked last in the country for its per-student spending. Now, it's second to last.² 

For decades, Republicans across the country have worked to decimate public education and villainize public school teachers. Now, their most extreme plan for public education is laid out in Project 2025, the MAGA agenda for a second Trump presidency. 

The Project 2025 manifesto has an entire section focused on reshaping—or, more accurately, dismantling—our public education system and has a plan to drain all of our resources to reroute them to private education, like what is happening in Utah. The plan includes eliminating the Department of Education, getting rid of teachers unions, ending federal funding, and gutting any programs that support equity and inclusion, even free school lunch programs and Head Start.³

For many communities across the country, teachers are wrapping up after another year of serving and educating our communities. Will you print out a few of these cards to thank the teachers in your life for all they do for your kids or your community? Taking a moment to write a note to thank them for all they do is an act of solidarity during a challenging time for public educators.

It's no surprise that Moms for Liberty, a far-right "parental group" best known for their support of book bans and opposing LGBTQ+ inclusion in schools, sits on the Project 2025 advisory board and were influential in drafting the educational policies within the Project 2025 proposal.⁴ While under the guise of protecting kids and family values, they aim to strip us of our freedoms, deny the truth of our history, and push their ultra-conservative agenda into every aspect of our lives. 

Authored by the far-right Heritage Foundation, backed by more than 100 conservative organizations, and funded by dark money, Project 2025 is a 920-page detailed presidential transition plan to consolidate power and force the MAGA agenda into every aspect of our lives. In addition to undermining public education, the agenda aims to eliminate Social Security and Medicare, roll back climate initiatives, revoke protections for LGBTQ+ people, and ban abortion.⁵ 

This is the agenda Trump and Republican leaders will pursue if they seize power in this election. No wonder the stakes are so high. As we fight to defeat this MAGA threat in November, we also need to make sure American voters know about Project 2025 and all the unpopular, damaging policies it includes. And we need to do what we can to show solidarity with those who would be targeted the most—such as public school teachers who, day in and day out, make an important difference in the lives of our kids.

Together we can defend public education and the teachers who give so much to our kids and community. Start by thanking them for another year of teaching!

Thanks for all you do.

Sources:

1. "Utah teachers union sues over state's $82 million school voucher program," The Salt Lake Tribune, May 29, 2024
https://act.moveon.org/go/193597?t=6&akid=391408%2E22927824%2EQsn0IW 

2. "Utah has no plans to change lowest-in-nation education spending, officials say," The Salt Lake Tribune, January 28, 2024
https://act.moveon.org/go/193598?t=8&akid=391408%2E22927824%2EQsn0IW

3. "A guide to Project 2025, the extreme right-wing agenda for the next Republican administration," Media Matters, March 20, 2024
https://act.moveon.org/go/189537?t=10&akid=391408%2E22927824%2EQsn0IW

4. "Project 2025 Tapped Known Hate, Extremist Groups For Advisory Board," Accountable.US, May 20, 2024
https://act.moveon.org/go/193620?t=12&akid=391408%2E22927824%2EQsn0IW

5. "A guide to Project 2025, the extreme right-wing agenda for the next Republican administration," Media Matters, March 20, 2024
https://act.moveon.org/go/189537?t=14&akid=391408%2E22927824%2EQsn0IW

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