Washington, D.C., July 17, 2025 – Senator Elizabeth Warren’s newly released report, Education at Risk: Frontline Impacts of Trump’s War on Students, confirms what parents have been sounding the alarm about for months. The federal government is abandoning its responsibility to the students and families it was created to serve.
The report’s findings are deeply disturbing. Budget cuts and politically motivated restructuring at the Department of Education are already harming students. The Office of Federal Student Aid has been gutted, leaving young people unable to access the resources they need to attend college and putting them in harm’s way from predatory lending practices. The Office for Civil Rights has lost nearly half its staff and most of its regional offices, leaving students unprotected from discrimination, harassment, and violations of disability rights. And the dismantling of the Department’s data and research infrastructure means parents are left in the dark, without accurate information to guide decisions about their children’s education.
“Parents are not fooled by the chaos. We are watching closely,” said Keri Rodrigues, President of the National Parents Union. “We are exhausted by the politicization of our children’s classrooms and furious that critical decisions are being made behind closed doors, with no regard for lived experience or frontline impact. This is not about bureaucracy or politics. This is about our kids. This is about civil rights. This is about the truth. And parents will not sit quietly while our children’s futures are traded away.”
This week’s U.S. Supreme Court ruling has only made matters worse. By a 6–3 decision, the Court gave this administration a blank check to proceed with mass firings and sweeping rollbacks at the Department of Education. This decision threatens the futures of 62 million students and signals open season on families already struggling to be heard.
These are coordinated attacks on working families—particularly those in communities of color, low-income neighborhoods, and households raising children with disabilities. With fewer student aid protections, students are pushed into predatory lending with no safeguards. Without civil rights enforcement, families are left with only expensive, inaccessible legal options. And without reliable national data, parents are cut off from the truth and denied the tools they need to advocate for their children.
“We thank Senator Warren for standing up for working families and every child’s right to a quality education,” Rodrigues continued. “The National Parents Union is demanding Congress act now to restore the capacity and mission of the Department of Education and is calling on state and local leaders to step up and demand a reversal of these deleterious policies. We will rise. We will speak out. We will organize. Because our kids can’t wait.”
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