First came the students and now, the teachers.
Dozens of educators, parents and civic leaders rallied Saturday at the Teachers Association of Long Beach headquarters to protest against the potential dismantling of the U.S. Department of Education, which they said could result in larger class sizes, defunct programs and staffing shortages statewide.
This comes one day after more than 500 students staged a walkout from Long Beach schools, in protest over President Trump’s hardline immigration policies and threats of mass deportations.
Speaking from a lectern behind the teachers union building in Bixby Knolls, officials Saturday decried what they say is an assault on public education at all levels.
“This is an attack on our democracy,” said Long Beach Mayor Rex Richardson. “Because, and we’ve seen it before, if you can’t read you can’t vote, you can’t think critically, you can’t speak up for the life you want for your family.”
The White House has said it is considering an executive order attempting to abolish the U.S. Department of Education and could urge Congress to sign off on the move. Dozens of federal education employees have been placed on paid leave or offered buyout packages, and workers from the Elon Musk-led Department of Government Efficiency have obtained access to the department’s records to look for areas to cut spending, according to news reports.
Most of the rhetoric Saturday blistered President Trump and his proposed cuts, but speakers also took aim at Musk, who has overseen a team of “special government employees” currently slashing across the federal government as they try to greatly reduce the number of federal workers and even moved to dismantle entire departments such as the U.S. Agency for International Development, which distributes foreign aid.
Speakers warned the Department of Education appears next in their sights.
“Elon Musk wants to destroy public education because he wants more money for himself,” said Rep. Robert Garcia of Long Beach. “Because being the richest man on the planet is not enough.”
Garcia said he’s already pledged to vote against the dissolution of the department.
Alejandra Quintero, a local labor organizer, reminded the audience that it was not Musk who created his company, Tesla. “His workers did,” Quintero said. “He didn’t launch SpaceX, his engineers did. And we sure as h— know he isn’t going to make public education great. That is the teachers, the cafeteria workers, the custodians, the bus drivers.”
California State Superintendent Tony Thurmond warned that a dissolution of the federal education department would axe about $9 billion from the state’s budget for schools.
“Who goes after the Department of Education, who serves homeless students and students with disabilities, who goes after kids that are served on the free lunch program?” Thurmond asked. “Who does that?”
Thurmond assured that the state and federal officials will “not let that happen,” but added that in the event it does, the state “will put that money back” into the California education system.
Locally, one official said cuts will force programs like job training to close, explode class sizes, and take away staff funding for special education services for students with disabilities, among other expected cuts. Another said it would be devastating for students, about two-thirds of whom live below the poverty line and rely on programs like reduced lunch.
“(Musk) can go to Mars, but he needs to keep his hands off our funding,” Thurmond said.
The Long Beach Unified School District, which operates 84 schools and a retinue of programs, received about $166 million in federal funding for the 2024-25 school year.
State Sen. Lena Gonzalez said there’s a lot more that local and state officials can do going forward. She mentioned the recent advance of Senate Bill 48, which would, among other provisions, block unwarranted visits by immigration officers at schools to search for undocumented students. She also touted the $50 million the California legislature has allocated to combat the president’s policies in court.
“Even though it seems like a drop in the bucket,” Gonzalez said of the $50 million. “We won the last time eighty percent of those lawsuits against Trump.”