WASHINGTON, D.C. — Today, the Child Care for Every Family Network sounded the alarm on mass firings at the Department of Education (ED) led by the Trump Administration and Elon Musk’s DOGE. 

This week, Secretary of Education Linda McMahon announced the Department would cut its staff by roughly half and confirmed in a Fox News interview that it was the first step towards shutting down the Department. 

Andrea Paluso and Erica Gallegos, Co-Executive Directors of the Child Care for Every Family Network, released the following statement: 

“By destroying the Department of Education, Republicans are once again choosing billionaires over families. 

“This week, the Trump Administration fired nearly half the people who support our kids and teachers, protect students from discrimination; support students with learning and disability needs; run our student loan programs; and so much more. Their goal is clear: undermine and destroy public education to give more handouts to the ultra-wealthy and privatize it so that they can make more millions. And it’s crystal clear that dismantling the Department of Education will  devastate child care and early learning.”

“We are fighting back against this chaos and every member of Congress must too. The Trump Administration and unelected billionaire Elon Musk cannot continue to go unchecked. They are not “eliminating waste,” they are lining their pocketbooks with our tax dollars. Our elected officials must use their voices and their votes to protect kids and families from the whims of billionaires.” 

The Department of Education has a critical role in serving young learners and supporting child care. 

• The Title I program administered by the Department of Education supports more than 1.5 million preschool students
• Four in every five elementary schools that receive Title I funding also offer preschool
• ED also implements the promise made by the federal government that all students with disabilities or delays will have access to a fair and appropriate public education. Congress extended that commitment to our youngest learners by establishing the Individuals with Disabilities Education Act (IDEA) preschool grants (Part B, Section 619) and grants for infants and toddlers with disabilities or delays (Part C). According to the most recent data from ED supplied through its budget request, IDEA supports more than half a million preschoolers and more than 400,000 infants and toddlers with disabilities or delays.
• ED also has programs to help thousands of student parents attending college with defraying the cost of child care, or to support states in their systems-building efforts that create more and stronger child care and early learning opportunities.
• ED administers the Twenty-First-Century Community Learning Centers (21CCLC) program, which is the largest federal program dedicated to meeting the before-, after-, and summer care needs of school-aged children. 21CCLC distributes $1.3 billion to every state in the country so that school districts can extend essential care for 1,380,000 students, and help over 350,000 adults and family members meet their day-to-day needs.

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The Child Care for Every Family Network is the national movement and campaign to transform childcare, representing 1,500+ child care providers, impacted families, state and national organizations, and organizers across the country. Learn more: childcareforeveryfamily.org.