July 29, 2025

Duckworth Meets with Illinois Teachers to Discuss Support for Schools as Donald Trump Guts the Department of Education

 

[WASHINGTON, D.C.] – U.S. Senator Tammy Duckworth (D-IL) met with Illinois members of the American Federation of Teachers to discuss how we can better support our state’s schools as the Trump Administration works to dismantle the U.S. Department of Education, including by slashing its funding and reducing its workforce by nearly half. The U.S. Department of Education provides funding to help meet the needs of 4,000 K-12 schools and over 2 million K-12 students in Illinois, including resources needed to support students with disabilities and low-income students throughout the state. Photos from the meeting are available on Senator Duckworth’s website.

“By working to shutter the Education Department, Donald Trump is turning his back on tens of millions of students and middle-class families across the country,” said Duckworth. “Our children deserve a quality education—regardless of their zip code, disability status or family’s income. We should be doing all we can to strengthen our education system, not taking a chainsaw to a department that supports the future of our children, our workforce and our economy. As a mother of two girls, I’m mad as hell and I’m going to keep doing everything in my power to help make sure schools across Illinois get the support they need.”

Duckworth has been pushing back against Donald Trump’s efforts to dismantle the Education Department and withhold already-approved funding from schools in Illinois and across the country. After the Senator demanded the immediate release of nearly $7 billion in funding for K-12 schools and adult literacy programs across America that the Trump Administration had inappropriately frozen, the Trump Administration finally released the frozen funding last week.

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