AMERICAN STUDENT UNION

‘They Will Have to Come Through Us’: Sunrise Protests Trump Attacks With Education Department Study-In

BenO — Fri, 11 Apr 2025 00:00:43 +0000

Students and allies rallied outside the Washington, D.C. headquarters of the U.S. Department of Education on Friday for a “study-in” protest against President Donald Trump’s plan to shut down the federal agency—a longtime policy goal of right-wing groups including the organization behind the infamous Project 2025—and other administration attacks on their future.

Protesters set up school desks with signs reading “Trump, Stop Stealing From Kids” and “Kids Deserve Good Schools” on a sidewalk outside the agency’s main office. Sunrise Movement, the youth-led climate campaign that led the demonstration, vowed to “defend our schools, our futures, and our democracy” from attacks by Trump and Elon Musk’s Department of Government Efficiency.

“If Trump and Musk want to destroy the futures of millions of students across the country, they will have to come through us,” Sunrise Movement said on Instagram ahead of the protest.

On Thursday, Trump signed an executive order directing billionaire businesswoman-turned-Education Secretary Linda McMahon to “take all necessary steps to facilitate the closure of the Department of Education and return education authority to the states.” Trump’s order followed the Department of Education’s announcement earlier this month that it would fire half of its workforce.

The executive order delighted conservatives, who have long targeted the agency tasked with protecting civil rights and equal access in schools, administering federal student aid programs, funding billions of dollars in scholastic loans and grants, and more. The Heritage Foundation, which led Project 2025—often described as a blueprint for a far-right takeover of the federal government—applauded the directive.

However, according to Sunrise Movement:

Abolishing the Department of Education would have severe impacts on students, teachers, and parents. Schools will face larger class sizes, fewer teachers, and severe underfunding, making it even harder for students to get the education they deserve. Pell Grants would be eliminated, putting higher education out of reach for millions. Programs that support students with disabilities, English learners, and low-income families—as well as funding for school safety, mental health services, and building repairs—will be slashed.

“Trump and Musk want to defund public schools so they can give their fellow billionaires a bigger tax break,” 19-year-old Sunrise Movement schools organizing manager Adah Crandall of Washington, D.C. said Friday.

“We won’t let them rob us of a good education,” Crandall vowed, adding that she won’t let “Musk and his goons” destroy her generation’s future.

Wanya Allen, a student at Seminole State College of Florida and Sunrise Movement’s Philadelphia community lead, said: “The Department of Education is a human right. We are responsible as the youth to take the torch from our ancestors to continue the fight.”

“The Pell Grant that allowed me to attend college is only made possible by the Department of Education,” Allen added. “Trump and his billionaire Cabinet are stealing from everyday people like me and our opportunities to access education.”

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Letter to American Student Union from President Franklin D. Roosevelt

BenO — Mon, 24 Feb 2025 02:43:59 +0000

THE WHITE HOUSE WASHINGTON
December 18, 1937

Mr. Joseph P. Lash,
National Secretary,
American Student Union,
112 East Nineteenth Street,
New York, N.Y.

My dear Mr. Lash:

It is encouraging to find that there are students sufficiently socially minded to devote four days of their brief Christmas Holiday to a discussion of our country’s social and economic problems. The schools of our country, especially the colleges and universities, are expressions of democracy’s interest in youth.

The fact that large groups of students, on their own initiative, are taking up national problems is evidence that our institutions of learning are getting results. So long as our printing presses, radios, and schools are kept free I do not have any great anxiety about the future success of our democratic systems.

The freshness of point of views of youth should make your discussions especially valuable not only to the youth of the country but to the country as a whole. I send hearty greetings to your convention and sincere wishes that your deliberations will be fruitful in making our schools and colleges a genuine fortress of democracy.

Very sincerely yours,

Franklin D. Roosevelt
President, USA.

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American Student Union and United Peoples Jewish Fraternal Order Letter to Jewish American Students

ASUAdmin2 — Sun, 19 Nov 2023 23:58:35 +0000

The United Jewish Peoples Order is a working-class Jewish American organization that started in the 1930s. Learn more HERE

The past month has been difficult for many Jewish-Americans but especially students. Fundamental questions of collective identity, religion, self, and history have surfaced with the ongoing genocidal war on the people of Palestine. We at the American Student Union understand that Zionism and the far-right Netanyahu regime do not represent American Jews or Israelis. This criminal regime that wears the mask of Judaism, disgraces everything that the heroic Jewish people have accomplished, fought for, and sacrificed for millennia.

The ASU and UJPFO despite these dark times look with hope, as Jewish students have been at the forefront of the struggle for the rights of the Palestinian people and the movement against the apartheid regime in Israel. These groups include Students and Justice for Palestine, Jewish Voice for Peace, Not in Our Name, and the United Jewish Peoples Fraternal Order. Some Universities, like Columbia University go as far as banning these Jewish organizations from speaking at all on their campus. The heroism demonstrated by these groups, amid censorship, blacklisting, and threats will not be forgotten.

We at the ASU call for continued solidarity between all peoples of the United States against not only the apartheid regime in Israel but against US imperialism which is ultimately responsible for the current atrocities against the peoples of Palestine and the world at large. The Jewish people have a heroic tradition in the struggle for labor rights, civil rights, and the emancipation of all peoples of the world. Judaism is not defined by the criminal Stern Gang, Kahane, Ben Gvir, or Netanyahu. It is the tradition of the revolt against Roman occupation, the democratic revolutions of the 18th-19th century, the labor movement, the struggle against fascism, and the Warsaw Ghetto uprising. We stand with the peoples of Palestine and Israel against the reactionary and corrupt Netanyahu regime.

ASU and UJPFO call for an immediate cessation of military hostilities in Gaza. We support an end to Israeli occupation, a sovereign Palestinian State alongside Israel, and to equality and security in a two-state solution.

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