Crowds of university and high school students representing the student governments of some of the largest schools in the Washington area, DC, recovered outside the United States Department of Education on Friday to oppose the deduction of the administration agency.
Singing “hands of our schools” and “return our deer”, the protesters attended the headquarters of the Department of Outsis, since the defenders of education and the student organizers discussed the importance of the department for US students. UU.
Julia Comino, vice president of the student body of the American University, said that closing the agency would damage the rights of the most vulnerable in the United States.
Washington students, DC universities protest the dismantling and fund cuts from the president of the United States, Donald Trump, to the Department of Education, in Washington, DC, USA UU., On April 4, 2025.
Allison Bailey/Reuters
“The Department of Education is the government agency that guarantees that our universities have the same access, as people of all gender identities, of all racial, ethnic and protected classes,” Comino told ABC News. “And we know that when you pursue the Department of Education, you actually go after the marginalized communities. So this is just a continuous story of attacks on those marginalized and vulnerable groups,” he said.
Last month, President Donald Trump signed an executive order that directed the Secretary of Education Linda McMahon to take all necessary measures to reduce the department and return the education control to the United States. The department has already set aside almost half of its workforce.
“I think what we are really trying to convey is that the Trump administration has just overcome its authority,” said Asher Maxwell, student press coordinator of the Student Association of the University of Georgetown. “That will really damage our education and our future.”
The demonstration was organized by the student governments that represent more than 130,000 students in several universities in the region, including the University of Georgetown, the American University and the University of Howard, as well as the University of the Temple in Philadelphia, according to the organizers.
Student protesters have signs while participating in the “hands outside our schools” meeting in front of the United States Department of Education on April 4, 2025 in Washington, DC. Students from the University of Georgetown, the University of Howard, the American University, the University of George Washington, the University of George Mason and the University of Temple gathered to protest President Donald Trump, dismantling of the United States Department of Education.
Kayla Bartkowski/Getty Images
The coalition is a “historical alliance” against the “assault on education”, including freedom of expression of the campus and financial aid for students, according to a statement from the organizers.
Critics say that university students will be specially affected if the president continues with the transfer of the responsibilities of the Federal Student Aid Office, with their student loan portfolio of $ 1.6 billion, to another agency and ending federal workers who administer funds for higher education.
Ethan Henshaw, a Pell Grant recipient and president of the Georgetown student body, described the agency as “lifeguards” so that students reach equitable and quality education.
“This threatens the livelihoods, access to education, the economic mobility of low and medium -income Americans of all the background of the whole country,” said Henshaw. “I know, without access to the programs that come from this building, you know, education may not have been possible for me, so it is incredibly important to come here and demand that this institution remain strong, and that the Trump administration does not take away what is so important to us.”
President Donald Trump shows his firm in an executive order to close the Department of Education, during an event in the East Room of the White House in Washington, on March 20, 2025.
Roberto Schmidt/AFP through Getty Images
In an improvised appearance at a press conference held by Democrats outside the department headquarters earlier this week, McMahon defended the movements of the administration, saying that she believes that the best education is “closer to children and parents, local superintendents, work together and the boards of local schools to develop the curriculum for those students is the best way to happen.”
McMahon has also promised to continue financing functions and responsibilities of the department legally.
The Rally on Friday followed a month of Friday demonstrations in the department, including a “concentrate” of “issues of” studies “and” applause “for finished federal workers.
More recently, Democratic legislators in Capitol Hill have condemned changes in the department. Senator Elizabeth Warren, D-Mass., Launched a “Save Our School” campaign this week against the attempted administration of dismantling the department. His campaign includes research, supervision, community participation and demands, according to the senator.
An opinion shows a poster during a defense of our schools to protest the executive order of President Donald Trump to close the USDepartment of Education outside his building in Washington, on March 21, 2025.
Kent Nishimura/Reuters
“The federal government has invested in our public schools,” Warren said in an exclusive interview with ABC News. “Remove that from our children so that a handful of billionaires can be even richer is simply ugly, and I will fight it with everything I have.”
The abolition of the department cannot be done completely without the approval of the Congress.
Even so, the students of the Friday demonstration said that the threats of closing the department have already had a chilling effect on their campus, according to the vice president of the Student Association of the University of Georgetown, Darius Wagner.
“We are seeing them directly influence what we can discuss in our spaces, teach in our classrooms and also through K through 12 schools, because they threaten to reduce their funds if they do not meet the president’s opinions,” Wagner told ABC News.
“That is what is happening here and it is not difficult to see that this is the way to break our institutions and limit our ability to speak freely,” he said.
“This is just the beginning,” Wagner said, “that’s why we start here in the deer.”
