Class is back in session: for many, the Fall 2025 semester has begun. Students are coming back to a fraught situation. Trump has done his best to degrade public education. He aims to eliminate his political competition, who draw much support from forces on college campuses. What he presents as an alternative to education is no alternative at all: for-profit schools that teach lies from the “Make America Great Again” platform, owned by his peers and too expensive for most to attend.

Trump and his Secretary of Education Linda McMahon have unleashed a myriad of assaults on education. They are pressuring universities to cut ethnic studies, cultural centers, academic programs and jobs, to erase the history of oppression from curricula, to push out working-class youth, and to end student protest. Meanwhile, they want to use universities to continue conducting research for U.S.-backed wars, interventions, occupations and genocides that threaten peoples around the world. Like ICE, the Department of Defense saw huge budget increases.

The Office of Civil Rights, once a tool used to fight discrimination, has turned into its opposite. Trump is using the OCR to launch federal investigations at over 50 colleges for so-called discriminatory DEI policies or for so-called antisemitism, or in other words, pro-Palestine protests and divestment campaigns. To this end, he formed the Department of Justice Task Force to Combat Antisemitism. Columbia University caved into many of Trump's demands and let federal agents search dorms and detain students. Several of their cases, including Mahmoud Khalil, gained national attention and infamy.

Many administrators leapt at the chance to get rid of programs they viewed as non-lucrative and to restrict protests that have been a thorn in their side. Many boards of trustees snuck in secret meetings during summer break to remold colleges according to Trump's agenda. Anti-free speech policies now restrict flyering, postering and campus events. Cultural centers are being “merged” together and replaced with “student activities” offices. Diversity offices are closing. Majors like African American Studies, Chicano Studies, or Women’s and Gender Studies, which should all be expanded, are being frozen or axed. Initiatives to increase the admissions of Black, Chicano, Latino and other students are coming to an end. Language programs face cuts. In many cases, staff are being fired.

Trump’s ultimate goal is to dismantle public education. By firing half the staff at the Department of Education and transferring its powers to other departments, much of the apparatus that facilitates financial aid disbursement will be weakened. When states declare budget crises, cuts to education, healthcare, and other social services follow. The plan is for schools to close. In their place, expensive private schools funded by the likes of the DeVos family – Trump’s first Secretary of Education – will spring up like poisonous mushrooms. Combined with wage garnishment for defaulted student loans and the end of payment deferment, student loan debt will become so punishing that fewer working-class students will go to college. At the end of this mission, education truly will be only for the rich.

There are real things university administrators can do to resist Trump’s agenda: they can put the schools’ multi-million fundraiser monies towards jobs instead of investment portfolios. They can open up the colleges’ endowment funds and use that money to keep programs. They can cut from their own bloated administrative pay, which can amount to millions. They can defy Trump’s administration and call his bluff, instead of rolling out the red carpet and handing MAGA the key to the city.

Real resistance will come from people power – from students, faculty, campus workers and unions. In Spring 2025, Students for a Democratic Society chapters fought for international students to get back their visas, and in some cases won. Now, SDS is embarking on a campaign to Stop Trump’s Agenda. Its chapters are pushing everywhere for noncompliance with the Trump administration, for sanctuary policies, for an end of cuts to cultural programs, and an end to attacks on free speech.

SDS has called a National Day of Action to Stop Trump’s Agenda on August 28 for this purpose. SDS believes that education should be to the betterment of society – not for U.S. wars, not to make more architects of capitalism, not for racist miseducation. Campuses should be centers for young people to engage with revolutionary politics and organizing for the first time.

If we dare to fight, we stand a chance to win. If you are a revolutionary-minded student who wants to strike a blow against Trump and his ilk, start where you can – build a fight on campus. Join Students for a Democratic Society and sign up to start a chapter on its website, www.newsds.org. Call for a meeting, print a flyer, plan a protest. Raise demands that reflect the needs of the people on your campus, in terms that they can understand: “Stop Trump’s Agenda! Save Cultural Programs! No Deportations, Sanctuary Campuses Now!” Let us know what you’re up to and how far you want to go to build a revolutionary movement by writing to us on frso.org.

Our schools as we know them are in danger, but we can save them. We will forge a new generation of formidable, revolutionary young people, poised to take their place in the world. The last few years have proved it: students are ready to fight. If you haven’t joined the student movement yet, there is no better time to start than now.

#StudentMovement #FRSO #Statement #SDS #Trump #School #College #Feature

Parkland, WA – On Tuesday, August 19, about 50 community members, labor and immigrant rights activists rallied outside of the Franklin Pierce School District Building to celebrate the school board’s decision to cancel their contract with the Pierce County Sheriff’s office.

The decision will reallocate $341,920 in district funds that had previously gone toward a contract with the Pierce County Sheriff’s Office. Sheriff Keith Swank has previously stated that he intends to cooperate with U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE), though county and state policies limit such collaboration.

The organizations that called the rally – the Pierce County Immigration Alliance (PCIA) and Franklin Pierce Association’s Radical Caucus: Fight Injustice and Reimagine Education (FPEA FIRE) – had originally called the it before the school board’s decision. After learning on August 14 from school district officials that the contract had been canceled, the rally changed to a more celebratory tone.

“It took people from all different backgrounds, from all over Washington, to come together and say ‘hey, we don't want this in the school district,’” Matthew Caras, substitute teacher, special education specialist, and member of PCIA stated, “I'm really proud of all the collective work we put in together.”

As the rally began in front of the district building the protesters chanted “¡El pueblo unido, jamás será vencido!” The rally served both as a celebration of the school board’s decision and as a chance for community members to address the board during public comment. Speakers described the contract cancellation as a first step toward enforcing district policies and investing in real student safety.

“The district has not publicly committed to going away from student resource officers (SROs). What they've done is publicly committed to saying we don't have enough money right no,.” stated TJay Johnson, CTE educator at Keithley Middle School. “And so instead, what we want to do is encourage them to invest in the right way.”

Since canceling the contract, the school district has stated that they have made the decision based on the 2025–2026 school year budget. Educators, many of whom have been fighting for five years to cancel this contract, say otherwise.

Kevin Shintaku, music teacher and vice president of FPEA stated, “This only happened because of the grassroots organizing. People were out knocking doors, tabling in the community, and getting petition signatures. We tried for years to get SROs out, but it was the grassroots pressure that pushed things over the edge.”

During their joint statement to the school board during public comment members of PCIA and FPEA FIRE shared about the impact of this contract on immigrant families, the research about the ineffectiveness of SROs, and the lived experience of students and educators.

“I've known students that have been publicly embarrassed and shamed because the SROs walked them out of class in the middle of other students. They've been tackled on campus,” Johnson stated.

“When we went out into the community to do outreach we stood outside of grocery stores and knocked on doors. We spoke to many families and parents that were afraid to come here and speak tonight,” said Catelynn Henion, a member of PCIA, “They wanted the contract canceled and ICE collaborators out of our schools but didn’t feel safe to come out in public to speak in support. This statement serves to echo their demands and as a reminder of the many folks who are missing in this room that deserve to have their voices heard.”

During the school board meeting, it was announced that while the SRO contract had been canceled, but they will continue to contract with the sheriff’s office on a per event basis including extracurricular activities such as sporting events.

“We know that the fight is not over. By creating this loophole, the district showed us that they are willing to continue to fund a racist sheriff that has criminalized students and opened up the doors to collaboration with ICE,” said Talison Crosby of PCIA and Teamsters Local 174 member.

One thing is clear: the community and educators will continue to fight against the sheriff and demand reinvestment into the students and staff.

#ParklandWA #WA #InJusticeSystem #School