Education Equity

Keeping Score: Trump Threatens Students and Universities; Texas Midwife Arrested for Abortion Care; Americans Criticize Federal Worker Firings, ‘It’s Time to Fire Elon Musk’

In every issue of Ms., we track research on our progress in the fight for equality, catalogue can’t-miss quotes from feminist voices and keep tabs on the feminist movement’s many milestones. We’re Keeping Score online, too—in this biweekly roundup.

This week: Trump pulled university funding and arrested student leaders over pro-Palestine protests; a Texas midwife faces felony charges for providing abortion care; Congress members avoid town halls after Department of Education and other federal agencies were decimated; abortion bans threaten the lives of Black mothers; and more.

A Dangerous Rollback: The Trump Administration’s Attack on Student Civil Rights

Betrayal would be the simplest way to describe the Trump administration’s open disregard for the Department of Education and its Office for Civil Rights.

A betrayal of the department’s initial mission to advance education equity, a betrayal of the vital oversight the department was built to provide, and—perhaps worst of all—a betrayal of the countless students, families, and communities who continue to entrust the department to respect and protect students’ rights and well-being.

Our collective work remains anchored in the powerful vision and strategies we’ve been building for decades. Communities across the country are simultaneously defending vital protections while implementing transformative approaches to schooling that center belonging, equity and student well-being.

Education Is a Right

The Trump administration is trying to gut the Department of Education and divert funds to charter, private and religious schools that won’t be held accountable. This move threatens the progress we’ve made through civil rights efforts, especially in making schools more integrated and fair. The dismantling of key federal protections and funding will disproportionately hurt low-income students, students with disabilities, and communities already struggling.

We need to stand up, demand better resources for public schools, and refuse to let these harmful changes happen. We’ve fought for this before, and we can do it again.

Amid Right-Wing Attacks on Education, the American Association of University Professors Organizes for Academic Freedom

When the right-wing Heritage Foundation released its Mandate for Leadership: The Conservative Promise—better known as Project 2025—in 2023, its authors laid out a comprehensive framework for undercutting democratic governance. Moreover, its authors made no secret of their antipathy to both public education and trade unions, putting the National Labor Relations Act and Fair Labor Standards Act in their crosshairs. They also made it clear that they support the elimination of the Department of Labor Women’s Bureau which works to ensure workplace safety and increase opportunities for female job advancement. 

And then there’s education, pre-K through college. The Heritage authors put forward an agenda that includes broadscale book bans and curricular limitations on classes in African American, Latinx, LGBTQIA+, Feminist, Ethnic, Middle Eastern and Islamic Studies. In addition, they support the cancellation of the federal student loan program; the revocation of Title IX policies meant to protect students from sex-based harassment, discrimination and violence; and an end to faculty tenure.

Budget Cuts, IVF Access and the Feminist Resistance: Dispatches From Week 1 of Women’s History Month in Trump’s America

Beyond the sheer cruelty, Trump’s antagonism toward government—and the attempts to swiftly dismantle federal agencies’ productivity and purpose—is a simultaneous affront to and attack on women and LGBTQ communities. Make no mistake: That is by design. As Professor Tressie McMillan Cottom underscores: “By giving people a scapegoat, giving men a scapegoat … it says not only are women the enemy, are people of color and minorities the enemy, but the government is protecting them. So not only do we need to push these people out, but we need to delegitimize and gut the government that made them possible so it doesn’t happen again.” In the weeks and months to come, as we collectively continue to litigate and report and write and resist, we must not lose sight of this reality—because countering attacks on gender is foundational to the work of protecting and preserving democracy.

As today’s headlines highlight Trump’s withdrawal of aid to Ukraine and imposition of tariffs on China, Canada and Mexico—and the lowlights of his remarks to a joint session of Congress—here are stories that also warrant attention.

Trump’s War on Education: A Week-by-Week Timeline of Cuts, Bans and Rollbacks

Since taking office Jan. 20, President Donald Trump has unleashed a flurry of orders and actions designed to reshape the federal government’s role in education. The agency has also begun laying off employees, including in its Office for Civil Rights. At the same time, the Trump administration is attempting to redefine what the federal government considers discrimination in schools and on college campuses.

We’ve compiled these actions below and will update this list as Trump’s second term unfolds.

Why Some Districts Are Spending Big on Schools Tailor-Made for 4-Year-Olds

Jefferson Early Learning Center in Houston, Texas, bears little resemblance to elementary schools many adults recall attending in their earliest years. The classrooms have child-sized boats and construction vehicles children can play on, and ceilings painted to resemble outer space. There are no desks—all space is devoted to learning through play.

Alief Independent School District, which serves about 40,000 children in west Houston, is one of a growing number of districts across the country to pump money into creating a building that is tailor-made for pre-kindergarteners.

Afghan Women Are Trapped Between Two Prisons: Home and Society

“Hopelessness echoes from their [Afghan women’s] voices.”

Since the fall of the Islamic Republic of Afghanistan in 2021, Afghan women have been systematically erased from education, employment, and public life, making Afghanistan the only country where girls above sixth grade are barred from school. Once vital contributors to the nation’s progress, women are now trapped in a cycle of oppression that not only devastates their futures but also weakens Afghanistan’s economy and global standing. The world must take urgent action to combat this gender apartheid and support Afghan women in their fight for basic human rights.

As the Trump Administration Sets the Stage for Anti-Intellectualism, This Author Is Fighting Back

Last school year, over 10,000 book bans were issued, targeting 4,240 titles—more than double the number of bans in the previous year, according to PEN America research. The incoming Trump administration’s Department of Education has already made fighting the bans increasingly difficult, dismissing 11 complaints against school districts for removing books calling the bans a “hoax.”

“We know that reading books and hearing stories builds empathy. As a former high school teacher, I cannot stress how important that is,” New York Times bestselling author and former English teacher Samira Ahmed tells Ms.