The protest, organized by the Texas branch of the American Federation of Teachers (Texas AFT), was the first event on the jam-packed schedule for the 32nd Annual Texas AFT Convention held in Dallas for the first time in 15 years.
“Instead of checking this administration, [Republicans] are just rubber-stamping this administration's actions to the detriment of Texas,” Sheria Smith, president of the American Federation of Government Employees Local 252, told the Observer before the march.
The rebellious opening act to the convention comes after the Texas public education system was dealt significant blows this legislative session, mainly the narrow passage of a school voucher system for the first time after decades of Republican efforts. Vouchers, which critics say could negatively affect the public education system, channel a percentage of taxpayer dollars to fund private education via vouchers. This session, the Legislature set aside $1 billion for the project.
In late May, Cruz filed a United States Senate Bill to nationalize vouchers, called the Universal School Choice Act. The bill will set aside $10 billion in federal funding each year for private education.
“School choice is the civil rights issue of the 21st century,” Cruz said in a press release. “Every child in America deserves access to a quality education that meets their individual needs, regardless of race, ethnicity, income, or zip code. I remain committed to leading this fight until universal school choice has become available to every American, and I call upon my colleagues to expeditiously take up and advance this legislation.”
Dallas DOE Office Closed
It’s not just our Lone Star lawmakers placing a target on public education. An early campaign promise of President Donald Trump was the dismantling of the U.S. Department of Education (DOE). Immediately, the president and his former right-hand man, Elon Musk, rolled out a series of federal employee layoffs. The DOE was an early target, and on March 11, the entirety of the Dallas office, about 100 employees, was placed on administrative leave.
Sheria Smith worked at the Dallas DOE office before the entire branch was placed on administrative leave.
Alyssa Fields
Smith was a civil rights attorney at the Dallas DOE office for nine years before the cuts. Smith said the Dallas office was by far the busiest office in the country, serving Texas, Louisiana and Mississippi. But cases were transferred to the much smaller Kansas City office overnight, and with roughly 300 more cases per attorney, she estimates, civil rights complaint cases have halted almost completely.
“[The Trump administration is] working to get system failures of the federal government,” Smith said before the march. “They lie to the American people and say that we aren't doing our jobs and that they don't need us. They're doing everything in their power to make that lie a reality.”
Smith said she spoke outside Cruz's office on behalf of her coworkers, union members, and all the teachers still paying off student loans.
“Because Ted Cruz has forgotten who he serves, my colleagues and I can no longer work,” Smith said to the crowd. “Because we are not at work, you are not receiving education data, grants, student loans to further your education or student loan forgiveness. Most importantly, the schools funded by our tax dollars are not getting any oversight about making sure they’re doing right by our kids or right by you.”
An executive order, titled “Improving Education Outcomes by Empowering Parents, States, and Communities,” signed March 20, outlined the process of closing the department and “returning authority to the states.”
When Trump won the election, Smith knew her position was at risk, but she did not anticipate the pace and the breadth at which the federal layoffs rolled out.
“I knew that they were going to do something nefarious,” she said. “I knew that it was going to be an attack on our working conditions to make the concept of public service untenable, but how they were going to actually do that was a surprise.”
The president does not have the authority to abolish an entire department without Congressional approval, so Smith says the administration’s tactic is to drive the department into the ground by eliminating the workforce.
“I'm not sure who [this] serves,” said Smith. “I'm just also curious, in a free society, why you would attack education. Why would you not want an educated citizen?”
The Greater Impacts
Smith says the federal cuts to education, most significantly impacting those pursuing higher education, are an attempt to prevent anyone outside the top 1% from elevating their socioeconomic class.“It's relegating most Americans to low-wage labor,” she said. “It's giving 1930s Germany. They don't want us to be educated because they don't want us to make those types of analogies. But this has happened before in history. What a shame for this country that has always been regarded as the pinnacle of freedom of movement.”
There is a correlation between higher education and wages; a degree has been packaged as a one-way ticket up the economic ladder, says Smith. But without the DOE, student loans and federal grants necessary for many low-income students to complete their studies become increasingly inaccessible.
“If you work hard and do the right things, you can change the trajectory of your life and go from poverty to the middle class,” said Smith. “They are making that dream less and less possible.”
In just a few words, Smith summarizes what the cuts indicate about the current occupation of the White House.
“This is evidence of an administration that's incompetent.”