- Reed, Magaziner say budget cuts could lead to teacher layoffs and larger class sizes
- School meal funding and help for students with disabilities could be at stake
- Labor unions joining the opposition against GOP spending cuts
CRANSTON − Rhode Island Democratic pushback to President Donald Trump‘s agenda turned to education Monday.
U.S. Sen. Jack Reed, Congressman Seth Magaziner, state education officials and teachers union leaders warned that Republican spending cuts in education could leave local schools with larger class sizes and fewer resources for students with special needs.
“President Trump and the Republicans in Congress have declared war on public education,” Reed told reporters at a news conference Monday morning at the offices of the National Education Association Rhode Island teachers union.
“President Trump has said repeatedly he wants to eliminate the Department of Education and Project 2025, which is their game plan, laid out an attack plan to do just that,” he said. “The architects of that plan are on the march. They have linked up with Elon Musk and DOGE and they are going in and pillaging the entire federal government.”
How will the cuts impact Rhode Island schools?
Reed and Magaziner targeted the combination of Trump’s plan to dissolve the Department of Education and House Republicans’ budget resolution, which would cut $1.5 trillion in federal spending from several areas.
Although a lot of the specific cuts are a moving target and there is no deal yet with the Senate, the Rhode Island Democrats said they believe education spending will not be spared as the GOP looks for ways to fund more than $4 trillion in tax cuts.
“People need to understand that without federal support, the public education system in Rhode Island would be crippled,” Magaziner said. “If these cuts happen, it means fewer teachers, bigger class sizes, fewer programs, less [career and technical education] and a less talented workforce for employers.”
State Education Commissioner Angélica Infante-Green said Rhode Island receives $275 million in education spending from the federal government, most of it going directly to districts. The money includes $65 million in “Title 1” funds for low-income students, $60 million in Individuals with Disabilities Act money, $48 million for school nutrition and $11 million for career and technical education.
Paige Parks, executive director of Rhode Island Kids Count, noted that federal funding also provides early intervention services for at-risk infants and toddlers.
In higher education, Pell Grants for low-income students could also be on the chopping block, warned Rhode Island College President Jack Warner and state Postsecondary Education Commissioner Shannon Gilkey.
“Some of you might say, well, that doesn’t impact my child. Well, guess what? It will impact every student in Rhode Island,” Infante-Green said.
What about DEI in Rhode Island schools?
At the same time the state watches for possible federal aid cuts, schools are trying to understand what they need to do to comply with a letter published by the Trump administration Friday that gave recipients 14 days to rid themselves of DEI policies.
Infante-Green said school leaders have not yet changed policy or abandoned anything DEI related as they “huddle” and “try to make sense” of the latest orders.
“I think when they’re thinking about DEI, they’re thinking about race or they’re thinking about just kind of what they envision equity,” Infante-Green said of the Trump administration. “So I think that it is very challenging when we start unpacking where it goes into, because we have made sure that it is a fabric of everything that we do.”
Presidents Day protest against Trump at RI State House
A few hours after the news conference at NEARI, a couple of hundred protesters gathered at the State House Monday to rally against what they saw as Trump’s illegal executive orders to unilaterally cut spending and dissolve government agencies created by Congress.
“No kings in America,” they chanted on the south steps of the capitol.