Press Releases

Congresswoman Gwen Moore Leads Colleagues in Effort to Protect the U.S. Department of Education

As part of his campaign, President Trump pledged to eliminate the U.S. Department of Education. Congresswoman Moore serves as co-chair of the TRIO Caucus and is a champion of public schools. Supported by 18 of her colleagues, Congresswoman Moore’s letter to President Trump and Secretary of Education nominee Linda McMahon emphasizes the Department’s critical role in ensuring that every child has access to public education and the important education services it supports in rural, urban, and suburban communities across the country. While education is primarily the responsibility of the state and local education agencies, the U.S. Department of Education plays an important role in ensuring equity in education, especially at the K-12 level. During the 2017-2018 school year, approximately 7 million children nationwide, between the ages of 3 and 21, received educational services supported by the federal government.

The letter highlights the Department of Education’s critical role in strengthening access to education, including:

• Supporting school districts with high poverty rates through Title I funding, including resources and support for teachers
• Ensuring that children with disabilities receive a free public education with proper accommodations 
• Administering TRIO, which includes programs that provide academic support services to more than 870,000 low-income, first-generation, and veteran students
• Enforcing civil rights laws in schools, protecting students from discrimination on the basis of race, color, national origin, and sex in the classroom
• Administering the Pell Grant program and the Federal Application for Federal Student Aid (FAFSA), which ensures that millions of students can access grants and loans to make higher education more accessible
• Supporting adult literacy and education programs

“Whether you are an adult who needs literacy services, a low-income student who needs a Pell grant, or a parent with a child with disabilities, the U.S. Department of Education is serving you. If this agency faces harsh cuts or outright elimination, these needs won’t go away, which will only hurt the communities that we represent as well as our economy.  Investments in education contribute to long-term economic stability, higher productivity rates, and a more competitive national economy, benefiting individuals, families, businesses, and society as a whole. 

We need the U.S. Department of Education to support our students, teacher, and communities, which is why I am leading this critical effort.”

Cosigners of the Letter are: Representatives Hank Johnson Jr. (GA-04), Dwight Evans (PA-03), Jill Tokuda (HI-02), Mark Pocan (WI-02), Kevin Mullin (CA-15), Danny Davis (IL-07), Nydia Velázquez (NY-07), Mike Quigley (IL-05), Eleanor Holmes Norton (DC), Lloyd Doggett (TX-37), Betty McCollum (MN-04), Seth Magaziner (RI-02), Debbie Dingell (MI-06), Emanuel Cleaver (MI-05), Paul Tonko (NY-20), Jan Schakowsky (IL-09), and Raúl Grijalva (AZ-07).

In December 2024, Congresswoman Moore published an op-ed in The Nation highlighting the importance of federal support for public education.

Read the full text of the letter here.