By Arlen Benjamin-Gomez, Executive Director of EdTrust-New York

From day one, the Trump administration has set out to dismantle public education, enacting new policies that will strip away students’ access to education from preschool through college. Those policies target the very students New York has worked hardest to support: students of color, those from low-income backgrounds, immigrants, and rural youth.

These decisions advance an ideological agenda that reverses decades in of civil rights progress in education, defunds our public institutions, and limits access to knowledge and higher education.

The Trump administration’s signature law that passed in July, the “One Big Ugly Law,” creates voucher tax credits designed to spend billions in federal taxpayer dollars on wealthy families attending private school. At the same time, the bill punishes families with low-income by slashing funding for Medicaid and SNAP which support millions of students, families, and essential school food and health services. The administration has also moved to block undocumented children from participating in Head Start, a preschool program that serves tens of thousands of New York families.

By reinterpreting a 1996 law, the administration now enforces immigration status checks for Head Start enrollment. In New York, this change threatens access for over 42,000 children, including 3,800 experiencing homelessness. Even families who remain eligible may withdraw out of fear of exposure.

Federal officials also froze nearly $7 billion in education funding; a move New York Attorney General Letitia James and 22 other states challenged in court. That freeze disrupted after-school programs for 65,000 students, halted literacy classes for 80,000 adults, and undermined mental health, teacher training, and anti-bullying programs across the state. Although states fought succeeded in reversing the administration’s illegal action, the damage to these programs has already been done.

Higher education hasn’t escaped harm either. Recent changes to student loan repayment plans and graduate student lending will force many borrowers to pay more each month with fewer protections and will push more borrowers toward private lenders. We are concerned that many students from mixed-status families will avoid completing the Free Application for Federal Student Aid (FAFSA) altogether, fearing that applying could put their households at risk.

Public universities also face serious threats. The Department of Education recently canceled a $3.5 million grant to the University at Buffalo that supported a rural mental health training program for social work students. Officials claimed the program no longer aligned with federal priorities. The decision gutted graduate student opportunities and cut off vital mental health support to already overburdened rural schools.

Federal officials are not just cutting services; they are sending a message about who deserves an education. When they block children from preschool, intimidate students away from aid, or strip mental health resources from rural communities, they do more than harm programs. They destroy futures.

New York cannot control Washington, but we can choose how we respond.

We will reject fear-based policies that divide and exclude. We will stand up for equity, access, and dignity for every learner, from preschool to college, from cities to rural towns.

We can counter their ideology by declaring that every student in New York deserves the chance to learn, to grow, and to thrive. When federal actions threaten that right, we must speak out and push back, together, clearly and unapologetically. And when we unite to defeat this administration’s anti-public education agenda, we will one day repair what they are so deliberately trying to break.