In response to the Trump administration slashing the U.S. Department of Education by 50 percent, Tarah Demant, Director of Programs with Amnesty International USA said the following:
“As President Trump’s administration makes drastic cuts to the U.S. Department of Education, we remind the U.S. government of its obligation to ensure all students in the U.S. continue to have equal access to education, which is the opposite of what dismantling this department will achieve.
“The Department of Education manages multiple federal programs and oversees the implementation of civil rights protections that work to ensure that all students – regardless of their race, gender, wealth, (dis)ability, immigration status, neighborhood, and other factors – are not discriminated against and have access to their human right to education. Making cuts to the Department of Education means, among other things, weakening these protections for students across the country. The administration, completely disregarding its obligation to ensure all can fully access their right to education, knows that marginalized students will suffer the most from this move.
“While education is a human right in itself, it is also an empowerment right, indispensable to the realization of other human rights, including the ability to actively participate in the political life of the country.
“An educated citizenry is a threat only to a government bent on violating human rights. The Trump administration should be working to increase educational protections and resources instead of weakening them, and should commit to fighting for human rights instead of working to strip them from people.”
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