Students protest Education Department closure in ‘Hands Off Our Schools’ rally

Crowds of college and high school students representing student governments from some of the largest schools in the Washington, D.C., area rallied outside the U.S. Department of Education on Friday to oppose the administration’s gutting of the agency.

Chanting “hands off our schools” and “give us back our DOE,” demonstrators attended the rally outside department headquarters as education advocates and student organizers discussed the department’s importance to U.S. students.

Julia Comino, student body vice president at American University, said shuttering the agency would harm the rights of America’s most vulnerable.

“The Department of Education is the government agency that ensures that our universities have equal access, that people of all gender identities, of all racial, ethnic and protected classes,” Comino told ABC News. “And we know that when you go after the Department of Education, you’re actually going after the marginalized communities. So this is just an ongoing history of the attacks on those marginalized and vulnerable groups,” she said.

Last month, President Donald Trump signed an executive order directing Education Secretary Linda McMahon to take all necessary steps to shrink the department and return education control to the states. The department has already let go of nearly half its workforce.

“I think what we’re really trying to get across is that the Trump administration has just exceeded its authority,” said Asher Maxwell, a student press coordinator for the Georgetown University Student Association. “That’s really going to harm our education and our futures.”

The demonstration was organized by the student governments representing over 130,000 students at several colleges in the region, including Georgetown University, American University and Howard University, as well as Temple University in Philadelphia, according to the organizers.

The coalition is a “historic alliance” standing against the “assault on education,” including campus free speech and student financial aid programs, according to a release by organizers.

Critics say college students will especially be affected if the president follows through with transferring the responsibilities of the Office of Federal Student Aid — with its $1.6 trillion student loan portfolio — to another agency and terminating the federal workers who administer funds for higher education.

Ethan Henshaw, a Pell Grant recipient and Georgetown’s student body president, called the agency a “lifeline” for students to attain an equitable and quality education.

“This is threatening the livelihoods, the education access, the economic mobility of low- and middle-income Americans from every background all across the country,” Henshaw said. “I know, without access to the programs that come from this building, you know, education may not have been possible for me, so it’s incredibly important to come out here and demand that this institution stays strong, and that the Trump administration does not take away what’s so important to us.”

At an impromptu appearance at a news conference held by Democrats outside the department’s headquarters earlier this week, McMahon defended the administration’s moves, saying she believes the best education is “closest to the child where teachers and parents, local superintendents, working together and local school boards to develop the curriculum for those students is the best way that it can happen.”

McMahon has also vowed to continue funding statutorily mandated functions and responsibilities of the department.

The rally Friday followed about a month’s worth of Friday demonstrations at the department, including an “ED Matters” rally, “study-ins” and “clap-outs” for terminated federal workers.

More recently, Democratic lawmakers on Capitol Hill have condemned the changes at the department. Sen. Elizabeth Warren, D-Mass., launched a “Save Our Schools” campaign this week against the administration’s attempt to dismantle the department. Her campaign includes investigations, oversight, community engagement and lawsuits, according to the senator.

“The federal government has invested in our public schools,” Warren said in an exclusive interview with ABC News. “Taking that away from our kids so that a handful of billionaires can be even richer is just plain ugly, and I will fight it with everything I’ve got.”

Completely abolishing the department can’t be done without congressional approval.

Still, the students at Friday’s demonstration said the threats to close the department have already had a chilling effect on their campuses, according to Georgetown University Student Association Vice President Darius Wagner.

“We’re seeing them directly influence what we’re able to discuss in our spaces, teach in our classrooms and also through K through 12 schools, because they’re threatening to cut their funding if they do not comply with the views of the president,” Wagner told ABC News.

“That’s what’s happening here and it’s not hard to see that that is the road to breaking our institutions and limiting our ability to freely speak,” he said.

“This is only the beginning,” Wagner said, “This is why we started here at the DOE.”