A Blueprint for Resisting Trump Education Cuts? Chicago Teachers Reach "...

Trump’s and MAGA’s Own Identity Politics: White, Preferably Racist

Trump’s and MAGA’s Own Identity Politics: White, Preferably Racist: Today on TAP: The ‘race-centered’ Smithsonian exhibits are bad, but there’s nothing race-centered in restoring Confederate statuary.

Trump Rule

 Sunday’s Bulwark essay by JVL – Jonathan V. Last: 

“America is ruled by a regime which is attempting to create a dictatorship. Part of its strategy is to maintain strategic ambiguity about the state of our democracy. They want to send strong signals to various institutions that democracy no longer exists and that the rule of law is now rule by law. The point of these signals is to demand submission to their autocratic rule and consolidate non-electoral power.

At the same time, this regime wants to maintain the plausibility that it might be overthrown via normal democratic processes. The point of this second signal is to keep the institutions (and people) which have not yet been subdued docile and deactivated. The strategic ambiguity about whether or not we live in an autocracy is designed to preserve maximum maneuverability for the regime until such time as they have full control and no longer need to maneuver.”

 

Huelga en General - General Strike (United Farm Workers Song)

Faculty Unions Sue Trump Administration to Protect Free Speech

NEW YORK– The American Association of University Professors (AAUP) and the AFT today sued the Trump administration on behalf of their members for unlawfully cutting off $400 million in federal funding for crucial public health research to force Columbia University to surrender its academic independence. While the Trump administration has been slashing funding since its first days in office, this move represents a stunning new tactic: using cuts as a cudgel to coerce a private institution to adopt restrictive speech codes and allow government control over teaching and learning.

The plaintiffs, who represent members of Columbia University faculty in both the humanities and sciences, allege that this coercive tactic not only undermines academic independence, but stops vital scientific research that contributes to the health and prosperity of all Americans. The terminated grants supported research on urgent issues, including Alzheimer’s disease prevention, fetal health in pregnant women, and cancer research.

The Trump administration’s unprecedented demands, and threats of similar actions against 60 universities, have created instability and a deep chilling effect on college campuses across the country.  Although the administration claims to be acting to combat antisemitism under its authority to prevent discrimination, it has completely disregarded the requirements of Title VI, the statute that provides it with that authority–requirements that exist to prevent the government from exercising too much unfettered control over funding recipients. According to the complaint, the cancellation of federal funds also violates the First Amendment, the separation of powers, and other constitutional provisions.

“The Trump administration’s threats and coercion at Columbia are part of a clear authoritarian playbook meant to crush academic freedom and critical research in American higher education. Faculty, students, and the American public will not stand for it. The repercussions extend far beyond the walls of the academy. Our constitutional rights, and the opportunity for our children and grandchildren to live in a democracy are on the line,” said Todd Wolfson, president of the AAUP.

“President Trump has taken a hatchet to American ingenuity, imagination and invention at Columbia to attack academic freedom and force compliance with his political views,” saidAFT President Randi Weingarten. “Let’s be clear: the administration should tackle legitimate issues of discrimination. But this modern-day McCarthyism is not just an illegal attack on our nation’s deeply held free speech and due process rights, it creates a chilling effect that hinders the pursuit of knowledge—the core purpose of our colleges and universities. Today, we reject this bullying and resolve to challenge the administration’s edicts until they are rescinded.”

“We’re seeing university leadership across the country failing to take any action to counter the Trump administration’s unlawful assault on academic freedom,” said Reinhold Martin, president of Columbia-AAUP and professor of architecture. “As faculty, we don’t have the luxury of inaction. The integrity of civic discourse and the freedoms that form the basis of a democratic society are under attack. We have to stand up.”

The complaint alleges that the Trump administration’s broad punitive tactics are indicative of an attempt to consolidate power over higher education broadly. According to the complaint, the administration is simultaneously threatening other universities with similar punishment in order to chill dissent on specific topics and speech with which the administration disagrees. Trump administration officials have spoken publicly about their plans to “bankrupt these universities” if they don’t “play ball.”

Universities have historically been engines of innovation in critical fields like technology, national security, and medical treatments. Cuts to that research will ultimately harm the health, prosperity and security of all Americans.

“Columbia is the testing ground for the Trump administration’s tactic to force universities to yield to its control,” said Orion Danjuma, counsel at Protect Democracy. “We are bringing this lawsuit to protect higher education from unlawful government censorship and political repression.”

The lawsuit was filed in the Southern District of New York and names as defendants the government agencies that cut Columbia’s funding on March 7 and signed the March 13 letter to Columbia laying out the government's demands required to restore the funding, including the Department of Justice, Department of Education, Health and Human Services and General Services Administration. The plaintiffs are represented by Protect Democracy and Altshuler Berzon LLP.

The full complaint can be read here.

###

About the American Association of University Professors

 

Bernie Sanders, Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez Hold Rally in Denver

Cesar Chavez Day March

 

BREAKING: Bernie Sanders Excoriates Trump And Musk Over Cuts During Brut...

Chuck Summer Leads Some Democrats to "Obey in Advance"

  

Marc Cooper March 13, 2025. 

It is my distinct recollection that on Wednesday afternoon, Senate Democratic leader Chuck Schumer defiantly announced he would be voting no on a Republican-written continuing resolution (CR) to continue federal funding for another 6 months. Meaning he was ready to see a government shut-down wholly provoked by MAGA.

“Republicans do not have the votes in the Senate to invoke cloture on the House CR. Our caucus is unified on a clean April 11 CR,” Schumer said during a Senate floor speech. He, instead offered an “alternative” cr for 30 days that would forego all cuts and leave a month for negotiations.

“We should vote on that,” Schumer said. “I hope — I hope — our Republican colleagues will join us to avoid a shutdown on Friday.”

Haha.

That was yesterday. Today, he said he changed his mind and would be voting yes with the Republicans and that in turn gives the green light to other Democrats to follow suit and allow the MAGA bill to pass, avoiding a government shutdown that would take place midnight Friday.

The Republicans simply don’t have the 60 votes they need for passage and they need a minimum of 8 Democrats to bail them out. Schumer is now busy starting to carry the water, saving Trump and MAGA from owning their own self--provoked shutdown.

This is a moment of maximum Democratic leverage that they will not have again until the midterms and that is not a lock. It is a tragic, stupid and rather repugnant move.

We have to dip a bit into the weeds to fully comprehend the scale of this intentional fumble by Schumer and likely many other Democrats,

Last Tuesday the House narrowly passed its own funding bill that was strictly partisan. The bill increases Pentagon funding as it will for Trump’s failing mass deportation program.

But it also includes $13b in budget cuts for spending on social program including that includes disaster relief for California and a slash in funding for the National Instutute for Health. Other cuts will remove 57% of the funding for DOD research on cancer, kidney disease, and prostate cancer. Another $20 billion cut is targeted at the IRS which will cause a further fall in tax monies that could easily cost more than the $20b initial cut. While it does not place reductions ion medicare and medicaid, it will leave several other safety nets vulnerable, making life for the bottom half of the population ever more difficult. No surprise, it includes no cuts for the chainsaw DOGE machine.

Now Schumer and, privately, other Democrats say they will go along with the Republicans because a shut down could give Trump the power to decide what parts of the government stay open and which ones would not. They argue this would give the The Don too much power to dismantle the government as if anything so far has really stopped him. It’s a weak tea argument.

Schumer today defended his switch saying:

“There are no winners in a government shutdown,” Schumer said in a floor speech. “It’s not really a decision, it’s a Hobson’s choice: Either proceed with the bill before us or risk Donald Trump throwing America into the chaos of a shutdown.”

“For sure, the Republican bill is a terrible option. It is not a clean CR. It is deeply partisan. It doesn’t address far too many of this country’s needs. But I believe allowing Donald Trump to take even much more power via a government shutdown is a far worse option,” he added. “I will vote to keep the government open and not shut it down.”

If Chuck can change his mind, so can I. This is not weak tea. It’s a crock of Shinola.

It is true that, either way, Trump retains power to cut whatever he wants, What’s not true is if that in the case of a shutdown there would indeed be a loser — Donald Trump and MAGA,

MAGA controls the White House and majorities in both houses of congress. A shutdown would be THEIR problem. Of course Trump would blame the Democrats for the shutdown, That’s automatic. But you’d have to be a pea brain to not understand that the real responsibility would fall on the recklessness and hubris of the Republicans in congress and the babbling idiot in the White House

Also, a shut down would put enormous pressure on Trump to negotiate a settlement as many GOP House and even Senate reps whose particular districts and states wold be most hard hit and would have to pacify their roiled constituents. It would create a situation where, for once, the Democrats would hold the cards and Trumo & Co, would be the supplicants. 

Oh my, we certainly would not want Trump to be so humiliated, would we?

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Robert Reich. 

The Democrats Must Vote Against the Republican bill. 

https://robertreich.substack.com/p/why-democrats-must-vote-against-the

 

Marc Cooper is a long time writer.  And, a survivor of the Pinochet coup in Chile of 1973.

In the name of neoliberal capitalism. 

U.S. Citizen child with brain cancer deported toda...

antiracismdsa: U.S. Citizen child with brain cancer deported toda...: https://www.msnbc.com/top-stories/latest/child-brain-cancer-deported-mexico-rcna196295  

Trump and Elon Musk have aimed their wrecking ball at public schools and the futures of the 50 million students."

 public schools and the futures of the 50 million students."

Jake Johnson

Mar 12, 2025

The Trump administration on Tuesday took a major step toward dismantling the U.S. Department of Education by firing roughly half of the agency's workforce, a decision that teachers' unions and other champions of public education said would have devastating consequences for the nation's school system. 

The department, now led by billionaire Linda McMahon, moved swiftly, terminating more than 1,300 federal workers on Tuesday including employees at the agency's student aid and civil rights offices. 

Sheria Smith, president of AFGE Local 252, which represents Education Department workers, pledged in a statement to "fight these draconian cuts." The union toldNPR minutes after the statement was issued that Smith, an attorney with the Education Department's Office for Civil Rights, was laid off. 

The Education Department said the mass staffing cuts would affect "nearly 50%" of the agency's workforce and that those impacted "will be placed on administrative leave beginning Friday, March 21st." 

In a press release, McMahon declared that the workforce cuts reflect the department's "commitment to efficiency, accountability, and ensuring that resources are directed where they matter most: to students, parents, and teachers." 

But critics, including a union that represents more than 3 million education workers nationwide, said the firings underscore the Trump administration's commitment to gutting public education in the interest of billionaires pushing tax cuts and school privatization. 

"Trump and Elon Musk have aimed their wrecking ball at public schools and the futures of the 50 million students in rural, suburban, and urban communities across America by dismantling public education to pay for tax handouts for billionaires," said Becky Pringle, president of the National Education Association. 

"The real victims will be our most vulnerable students," Pringle added. "Gutting the Department of Education will send class sizes soaring, cut job training programs, make higher education more expensive and out of reach for middle-class families, take away special education services for students with disabilities, and gut student civil rights protections." 

"We will not sit by while billionaires like Elon Musk and Linda McMahon tear apart public services piece by piece." 

Randi Weingarten, president of the American Federation of Teachers, said in a statement that "denuding an agency so it cannot function effectively is the most cowardly way of dismantling it." 

"The massive reduction in force at the Education Department is an attack on opportunity that will gut the agency and its ability to support students, throwing federal education programs into chaos across the country," she continued. "This move will directly impact the 90% of students who attend public schools by denying them the resources they need to thrive. That's why Americans squarely oppose eliminating the Education Department. We are urging Congress—and the courts—to step in to ensure all students can maintain access to a high-quality public education." 

The Education Department purge came days after news broke that President Donald Trump was preparing an executive order aimed at completely shuttering the agency—a move that would legally require congressional approval. 

Lee Saunders, president of the American Federation of State, County and Municipal Employees, said late Tuesday that the Education Department firings "are Project 2025 in action, and they have one goal—to make it easier for billionaires and anti-union extremists to give themselves massive tax breaks at the expense of working people." 

"Today's announcement from the Department of Education is just the beginning of what's to come," Saunders warned. "These layoffs threaten the well-being and educational opportunities for millions of children across the country and those seeking higher education. The dedicated public service workers at public schools, colleges, and universities deserve better. Elections may have consequences, but we will not sit by while billionaires like Elon Musk and Linda McMahon tear apart public services piece by piece. We will keep speaking out and finding ways to fight back." 

 

https://www.commondreams.org/news/education-department-layoffs

Trump Attacks Public Education

Today, the Trump administration gutted 50% of the Education Department workforce, firing dedicated public servants who help ensure our nation’s students have access to the programs and resources that keep class sizes down and expand learning opportunities for students.   Please join us for an urgent town hall to discuss the Trump administration’s action and its other efforts to dismantle the U.S. Department of Education. We will discuss the impact on students and neighborhood public schools, as well as actions educators, parents, and community members can take.

Town Hall to Protect Our Students and Families Featuring  Becky Pringle  President  National Education Association  Randi Weingarten  President  American Federation of Teachers   T️hursday, March 13  8 p.m. EDT / 5 p.m. PDT  Zoom  Link upon registration  Take Action  ➤

This event will not be recorded.  All are welcome to join, but registration is limited. Please forward the invitation to anyone who you think would be interested in attending.  We hope to see you there,  The NEA EdAction Team