All4Ed Opposes Trump Budget: “This is not just a war on ‘woke’; it is a retreat from results and responsibility.”
Date: Friday, April 3, 2026
Contact: Enrique A. Chaurand
Email: echaurand@all4ed.org
Washington, D.C. – The administration presents its budget as a war on so-called “woke” education programs. In reality, it is a war on evidence.
Practices such as culturally responsive teaching and multilingual education are not “cultural Marxism.” They are grounded in research and have been shown to improve student engagement and outcomes. Dismissing them does not make them disappear; it simply ignores what works.
At its core, this budget redefines the federal role in education. It treats education as worthwhile only when it produces short-term labor market returns. That is a sharp break from decades of bipartisan understanding that the federal government has a responsibility to expand opportunity, strengthen public education, and support students who face the greatest barriers. When the Administration’s philosophy is put into practice, the results are clear, including: deep cuts to equity-focused K–12 programs, support for English learners, Minority Serving Institutions, and Adult Education. The students most affected are those who already have the least access to opportunity.
The administration calls this “flexibility for states.” But states already make the majority of education decisions and provide most education funding; federal funding provides about eight cents on every dollar spent in education. What this proposal actually does is strip away targeted investments and accountability while shifting responsibility without resources, consolidating over a dozen targeted K12 programs and cutting $6.5 billion dollars. The only thing “mega” about the proposed Make Education Great Again (MEGA) Block Grants is that they are a mega-bad idea that masks deep cuts as flexibility.
Congress rejected many of these same proposed cuts on a bipartisan basis last year, recognizing that federal education funding is not about control, but about commitment.
Equally concerning is the administration’s broader pattern of unlawful action. The proposed transfer of the Office of Career and Technical Education budget to the Department of Labor disregards clear bipartisan direction from Congress that such transfers lack legal authority. This is not just a policy disagreement; it is a challenge to the constitutional role of Congress in determining why federal agencies were established, why offices are seated in federal agencies, and how federal funds are used.
Taken together, this budget is not a reform; it is a retreat from our nation’s federal commitment to educational opportunity for all. It fragments the systems that support our nation’s students, and it undermines our nation’s ability to ensure that every young person has access to a high-quality education.
This is not just a war on “woke”; it is a retreat from results and responsibility.
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