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Boston Globe
15-03-2025
- Politics
- Boston Globe
Over 1000 demonstrators attend anti-Trump, Musk rally in Boston Common
Joshua Rand, 18, a student at UMass Amherst and member of the Sunrise Movement, a progressive climate activist organization, said nearly every executive order Trump has signed is unconstitutional to some degree. Advertisement 'I think he's engaged in a broad overreach of executive power, and there's basically nobody in the federal government who has either the influence or the care to actually stop that,' Rand said. The protest is part of a national effort to peacefully oppose President Trump, according to Rebecca Winter, a press representative for 50501 Massachusetts, a state chapter of a grassroots movement to stage anti-Trump protests in every US state. People listen to a speech at anti-Musk rally. John Tlumacki/Globe Staff While the rallies have not been as large as those from his first term eight years ago, protests against Trump have become a common occurrence nationwide. Rather than opposing one of the Trump administration's policies, most demonstrations oppose multiple initiatives he's put in place since taking office including So far this month, Many have taken aim at Musk, a senior adviser to the president and leader of the Advertisement Trump and Musk are trying to change what they say is a corrupt federal bureaucracy that benefits liberals and wastes money. 'We feel that the billionaires at the top are trying to take advantage of the American people and the policies that they're putting in place are destroying our social safety nets and also destroying our relationship with our allied countries all over the globe,' Winter said. Mary Bickerton from Medford dressed as The Statue of Liberty as she attended an anti-Trump and anti-Musk rally. John Tlumacki/Globe Staff Jessica Tang, the president of the American Federation of Teachers Massachusetts and one of the speakers at the rally, said in her speech that the Education Department's announcement on Tuesday of plans to lay off more than 1,300 people will put Massachusetts programs on the chopping block. Some of the services threatened by the layoffs are Title I-funded afterschool programs for low-income children and disability accommodations under the Individuals with Disabilities in Education Act, Tang said. 'What happens is that there's no oversight of how the funding is used,' she said. 'There's no guarantee that the money that is supposed to go to our lower income, our special education, our multiple-language learners, our most vulnerable students is actually going to them,' she said. Bryan Winter, a retired US Army sergeant and the 50501 veteran representative, said in his speech he was ashamed he did not recognize Trump's character sooner. 'It only took a minute of real attention for me to realize that the president of the United States was a spiritual traitor for the American idea and ideal,' he said. Winter condemned Advertisement 'He has literally ordered that we burn billions of dollars on the pyre of an un-American purity test to mollify a political base that wants spectacle and theater, not greatness and strength,' he said. Around 2 p.m., the emcee led the crowd in one last chant to end the rally. 'This is what democracy looks like,' attendees shouted. People lingered after the event to chat and lined up at the press table to sign themselves up for the organization's email list. The group said they are planning a large-scale protest in the coming weeks. Material from the Associated Press was used in this report. Talia Lissauer can be reached at
Los Angeles Times
13-03-2025
- Politics
- Los Angeles Times
California joins 19 Democratic states in suit to stop massive Education Department layoffs
California on Thursday joined other Democratic-led states in suing the Trump administration, seeking to halt massive layoffs at the Department of Education, alleging the cuts amount to an illegal shutdown of its crucial work to administer student loans, protect civil rights and aid poor districts and students with disabilities. In the suit, filed in federal district court in Massachusetts, California Atty. Gen. Rob Bonta joined attorneys representing 19 Democratic states and the District of Columbia. The complaint alleges staff reductions that Education Secretary Linda McMahon announced this week are a 'reckless' attempt to carry out President Trump's desire to close the department by making it unable to carry out work mandated by Congress. The Trump administration began dismantling the department this week, laying off about half of the agency's employees and carrying out what McMahon has said is key to the department's 'final mission' to no longer exist. 'It is a bedrock constitutional principle that the president and his agencies cannot make law. Rather, they can only—and indeed, they must — implement the laws enacted by Congress, including those statutes that create federal agencies and dictate their duties,' the suit said. 'Theexecutive thus can neither outright abolish an agency nor incapacitate it by cutting away the personnel required to implement the agency's statutorily-mandated duties.' The Department of Education did not immediately respond to a request for comment on the suit. The suit asks a judge to order a stop to the layoffs, which are to take effect March 21. The staff reduction would leave 2,183 workers at the department, down from 4,133 in January. Bonta filed the lawsuit with attorneys from Arizona, Colorado, Connecticut, Delaware, Hawaii, Illinois, Maine, Maryland, Massachusetts, Michigan, Minnesota, Nevada, New Jersey, New York, Oregon, Rhode Island, Washington, Wisconsin, Vermont and the District of Columbia. California receives billions in federal funding from the Education Department for K-12 and higher education students and programs. The department has been unclear on how it will carry out its funding obligations, but said this week that it will continue to do work it is mandated to do by Congress. California receives an estimated $16.3 billion annually in federal funding for K-12 school students, or about $2,750 per student. The Los Angeles Unified School District — the nation's second-largest school system — puts its annual federal support at $1.26 billion. Not all of these dollars funnel through the Department of Education. Significant federal funding for early childhood education comes from the Department of Health and Human Services, and the gigantic student meal program is funded by the Department of Agriculture. L.A. Unified alone estimates that it receives $363 million to feed students from low-income families. About 80% of L.A. Unified students qualify for Title I-funded services aimed at giving academic support to students from low-income and poor families. The help includes tutoring, smaller classes, after-school programs, teacher training, counseling and family engagement. Another major funding area aids students with disabilities. In higher education, the Education Department also handles student loans for 43 million borrowers who owe the government more than $1.5 trillion. About half of Cal State University students, for example, receive student loans, a portfolio of more than $1 billion. The Pell Grant program, which awards more than $120 billion to 13 million students each year to help pay for higher education, is also managed by the department. About $1.5 billion per year is set aside in Pell Grants for California students. Questions have also risen about civil rights enforcement. As part of the layoffs, in San Francisco, the regional branch of the department Office for Civil Rights — already backlogged with investigations into school-related discrimination — is closing. Six other regional civil rights offices are also slated for closure. Monday's suit is one of several that Bonta and blue state attorneys general have filed against the Trump administration. On March 6, California joined seven other states suing the Trump administration over cancellation of $250 million grants to them — $600 million nationwide — for teacher training programs funded through the Education Department. The administration said the programs promote inappropriate and 'divisive ideologies' linked to diversity, equity and inclusion, known as DEI. A federal judge on Monday ordered the programs reinstated while he reviewed the case.
