To Be Equal #13
Marc H. Morial, President and CEONational Urban League
“Today’s signing fulfills a longstanding personal commitment on my part. My first public office was as a county school board member. As a state senator and governor, I devoted much of my time to education issues. I remain convinced that education is one of the noblest enterprises a person or a society can undertake.” — President Jimmy Carter
President Carter’s words, upon signing the bill to create the U.S. Department of Education in 1979, ring louder today than ever before.
In a stunning act of political retribution and ideological extremism, the Trump campaign and its allies have launched a crusade to dismantle the Department of Education. The attacks are not just symbolic — they are existential. Executive orders, lawsuits, and budgetary sabotage aim to gut the Department’s authority, revoke billions in funding, and leave America’s students — especially our most vulnerable — without the federal oversight and protection they deserve.
The National Urban League categorically condemns this reckless and unlawful effort. In our most recent statement, we made it plain: eliminating the Department of Education would not only be a disastrous policy, but a direct assault on educational equity, civil rights, and the future of economic mobility in this country.
Just this month, the Department abruptly halted nearly $3 billion in pandemic-era recovery funds meant to help districts recover learning loss, support mental health, and stabilize staffing. This sudden move, reportedly linked to political efforts to weaken the agency’s power, puts millions of students at risk — disproportionately Black, Brown, and low-income children.
Meanwhile, educators and civil rights organizations — including the NAACP and the nation’s largest teachers’ unions — have taken to the courts to block an executive order that would strip the Department of its core responsibilities. In Congress, senators are demanding answers after reports surfaced that Trump-era officials may have engaged in illegal mass firings to gut the Department from the inside.
Let’s be clear: these are not isolated incidents. They are part of a coordinated campaign to roll back hard-won progress in American education — progress that has been essential to Black economic empowerment for more than a century.
From the creation of Freedmen’s schools during Reconstruction to the expansion of historically Black colleges and universities, access to education has been central to the Black freedom struggle. Teaching was one of the first professional careers open to Black Americans, and education remains one of the clearest pathways to upward mobility. Pell Grants, desegregation rulings, Title I funding, and affirmative action — all of these federal tools have been critical in expanding access to opportunity.
The National Urban League has long championed these tools. Through our “Equitable Education for All” pillar and local affiliate programs, we are fighting to improve literacy rates, close achievement gaps, increase Black teacher representation, and ensure fair access to postsecondary success. Our Urban Youth Empowerment Program, Project Ready, and Community Schools initiatives all depend on a functioning Department of Education that works in partnership with communities, not against them.
The Department of Education is far from perfect, but it remains the only federal agency solely focused on ensuring every child, regardless of zip code, receives a quality education. We should strengthen it, not abolish it.
Education is not a political bargaining chip. It is a moral obligation and a constitutional right. Any effort to dismantle the Department of Education is an attack on our children, our communities, and the promise of America itself.
We will not stand idly by.
