WASHINGTON — Holding signs that read “stand up for Ed” and “protect our kids,” protesters rallied outside U.S. Education Department headquarters in Washington, D.C., Friday to call attention to the agency’s recent staff cuts. On Tuesday, the department fired 1,300 employees.

What You Need To Know

  • Protesters rallied outside U.S. Education Department headquarters in Washington, D.C., Friday to call attention to the agency’s recent staff cuts

  • The speakers included teachers, education advocates, former Education Department employees and elected officials

  • Established by Congress in 1980, the Department of Education helps pay for special ed, teacher salaries, social workers, professional development programs, after-school programs, reading specialists and transportation, as well as to provide assistance to children from low-income families and to enforce anti-discrimination laws

  • The rally comes three days after the Department of Education fired 1,300 of its employees and one day after 21 Democratic attorneys general filed a lawsuit against the Trump administration saying the firings are illegal

“We have public servants who have had their livelihoods stolen, not because of performance but because of vengeance, not because of waste or fraud but because of attacks on opportunity — because of an agenda that is seeking to undermine civil rights, because of an agenda of neo-segregationists,” Portia Allen-Kyle, managing director of the racial justice organization Color of Change, said Friday. “That is why we are here.”

Allen-Kyle led the rally that included about a dozen speakers. Teachers, education advocates, former Education Department employees and elected officials were among those speaking out against the Trump administration’s efforts to get rid of the agency that supports 50 million American children in public K-12 schools.

“I stand before you in full understanding of how foundational our public schools are, how it enabled me to stand with you today as we fight back on all this chaos,” Sen. Mazie Hirono, D-Hawaii, said at the rally. 

An immigrant from Japan, Hirono said she didn’t speak English when she first came to the United States, but her public school teachers crafted a program for her to learn. She said she was able to attend college through a federally supported work-study program.

“There are millions of kids throughout our country who need that kind of special education,” Hirono said. “We cannot sell the future of our children and our country down the river so that [President Donald Trump’s] billionaire buddies can run our country and get their tax breaks.”

Established by Congress in 1980, the Department of Education helps pay for special ed, teacher salaries, social workers, professional development programs, after-school programs, reading specialists and transportation, as well provides assistance to children from low-income families and enforces anti-discrimination laws.

Trump has repeatedly said he would like to disband the agency, and Education Secretary Linda McMahon told Fox News on Tuesday the firing of 1,300 of the department's employees this week was the first step toward that goal.

The rally comes three days after the mass firings and one day after 21 Democratic attorneys general filed a lawsuit against the Trump administration saying the firings are illegal.

The Education Department did not immediately respond to a request for comment about the demonstration outside its headquarters.