Category: Thoughts About Children

The Trump administration has made dozens of cuts that some teachers say could impact their profession in a “huge way,” according to educators in terminated programs who spoke with ABC News.

Before Teacher Appreciation Day, which is celebrated on Tuesday as part of Teacher Appreciation Week, the administration has slashed professional development initiatives, preparation programs, and other federally funded education projects that the administration has deemed as divisive and run afoul of its priorities.

Cuts are affecting the experiences that ’empower teachers’…

Melissa Collins, who was Tennessee’s Teacher of the Year in 2023, said professional learning grants through the National Endowment for the Humanities (NEH) made her a better teacher. Collins told ABC News the opportunity to attend programs at museums or colleges allowed her to enhance her skills. At the Japanese American National Museum (JANM) last summer, Collins participated in the Landmarks of American History and Culture workshop entitled “Little Tokyo: How History Shapes a Community Across Generations.”

“I have received the best professional learning experience that I could ever receive that is going to impact my classroom and so many others,” Collins said in a video by JANM.

However — like many federal education awards — the NEH grant was terminated by the Department of Government Efficiency (DOGE) and the programming is no longer offered due to the administration’s “shifting priorities,” according to a termination notice reviewed by ABC News.

“As teachers, we strive to improve for our students, but currently, budget cuts are affecting the experiences that empower teachers to serve their schools and communities effectively,” Collins wrote in a statement to ABC.

Former teacher Dani Pierce was educator liaison at the department of education before losing her job this spring under the agency’s reduction in force efforts as Trump hopes to abolish the department completely. Pierce stressed the work teachers do in the classroom each day is “immeasurable” and often goes unseen. But during Teacher Appreciation Week this year many in the education community, including Pierce, grapple with the prospect of a shuttered department.

“It pains me deeply not to be at the Department right now, leading our teacher appreciation efforts or ensuring teachers have a voice in the policies that affect your schools and students,” Pierce wrote in an open letter to the teachers of America.

“I may be RIFed from my role as your liaison to the Department, but I will never stop working to ensure your voices are heard and your contributions receive the recognition and support they deserve,” Pierce added.

Teachers across the country tell ABC News they continue to face major hurdles in the classroom — including staffing shortages, the pinch of low pay and addressing students’ mental health — many of which stem from closures during the COVID-19 pandemic…

The Trump administration has made dozens of cuts that some teachers say could impact their profession in a “huge way,” according to educators in terminated programs who spoke with ABC News.

MORE: Collections on defaulted student loans may affect millions of people’s credit scores
“I have received the best professional learning experience that I could ever receive that is going to impact my classroom and so many others,” Collins said in a video …

However — like many federal education awards — the NEH grant was terminated by the Department of Government Efficiency (DOGE) and the programming is no longer offered due to the administration’s “shifting priorities,” according to a termination notice reviewed by ABC News.

MORE: 2 federal judges block Trump’s effort to ban DEI from K-12 education
“It pains me deeply not to be at the Department right now, leading our teacher appreciation efforts or ensuring teachers have a voice in the policies that affect your schools and students,” Pierce wrote in an open letter to the teachers of America..

DEI initiatives “inconsistent” with fairness and excellence in education…

On the other hand, the next generation of teachers are also affected by the administration’s cuts.

One of Trump’s top pledges is to root out diversity, equity and inclusion programs and any practices that discriminate on the basis of race. Some of the most recent actions taken by the education department include cutting grants that contribute directly to educator diversity.

The agency terminated the CREATE project, formerly at Georgia State University, because the program conflicted with the department’s policy of prioritizing merit, fairness and excellence in education, according to a termination letter obtained by ABC News.

The federal funding was deemed “inconsistent” with the department’s objectives because the program promoted DEI initiatives or unlawful discrimination practices. But former employees said the organization contributed hundreds of millions of dollars toward promoting novice teachers. They told ABC News the teacher residency program helped place the majority of its student teachers into underserved schools in the Atlanta Public School system and called the administration’s termination notice “dismissive.”

“It was very disrespectful to the work that we have put our blood, sweat and tears into — ensuring that this community that we are serving in has quality educators,” an educator said….

https://abcnews.go.com/Politics/teacher-appreciation-day-trump-cuts-affecting-profession-huge/story?id=121482055

Memories… 2014                         #FloridaTeacher ❤️🍎        #TeacherLove…                                 #TeacherAppreciationWeek …  

#FloridaTeacher♥️🍎
Memories…

A child can teach an adult three things:

To be happy for no reason
To always be curious
To fight tirelessly for something…
❤️- Paulo Coelho
heartmath.org

#TEACHers
#TeacherAppreciationWeek
💜🪄💫✨🦋🌈🍎📚

Mother’s Day…
Teacher Appreciation…
The journey…
Our precious children…
#memories
#MothersDay
#TeacherAppreciationWeek
💜🪄💫✨🌞🌟💐🍎📚

By Tierney Sneed, Kristin Chapman and Shania Shelton, CNN

Our Classroom is a Rainbow…
Quote• Posted on December 18, 2013

Our Classroom is a Rainbow…

DEI stands for Diversity, Equity, and Inclusion. It’s a framework that promotes fair treatment and full participation for all people, particularly those who have been historically underrepresented or discriminated against.

DEI initiatives aim to create workplaces and communities that are more inclusive, equitable, and representative of the diverse world around us. They often involve policies, training, and programs designed to address biases, promote understanding, and ensure that everyone has a voice and a chance to succeed…

President Donald Trump’s efforts to crackdown on diversity, equity and inclusion programs suffered a major legal blow Thursday as three separate judges – two of them appointed by the president – ruled against a Department of Education policy that threatened to withhold federal funding for schools engaging in DEI or incorporating race in certain ways in many other aspects of student life.

The policy was first laid out in a so-called Dear Colleague letter sent to schools in February. Starting this month, schools receiving federal funding would be subject to certain certification mandates requiring that they turn over information regarding their compliance with the Trump administration’s prohibitions.

US District Judge Landya McCafferty said in a scathing opinion that the administration’s policy, was “textbook viewpoint discrimination,” likely violating the First Amendment’s free speech protections. She and another judge, US District Judge Dabney Friedrich, a Trump appointee, also concluded that the policy was likely unconstitutionally vague.

She also concluded that the National Education Association, the administration’s opponent in the case, was likely to succeed in its arguments that the policy was unconstitutionally vague and that the agency ran afoul of procedural steps required by law in how it implemented the policy.

“The ban on DEI embodied in the 2025 Letter leaves teachers with a Hobson’s Choice,” McCafferty, a Barack Obama appointee who sits in New Hampshire, wrote, noting that the educators must choose between teaching curricula that invites penalty from the federal government or risking their professional credentials by aiding the Trump policy.

“The Constitution requires more,” she wrote.

Friedrich, a Trump appointee who announced her ruling after a hearing Thursday in Washington DC, said that the letter failed to “delineate between a lawful DEI practice and an unlawful one,” making the task of reviewing compliance too difficult.

The third ruling against the policy came from Judge Stephanie Gallagher, a Trump appointee who sits in Baltimore. She found that the Dear Colleague letter ran afoul of procedural requirements required by law for implementing new agency policy.

“This Court takes no view as to whether the policies at issue here are good or bad, prudent or foolish, fair or unfair,” Gallagher said in her ruling. “But this Court is constitutionally required to closely scrutinize whether the government went about creating and implementing them in the manner the law requires. The government did not.”

The rulings come after the Trump administration reached a short-term agreement with the challengers in the New Hampshire case to pause enforcement of the policy while the judge considered whether to issue a preliminary injunction. That agreement was set to expire on Thursday.

Trump has waged war on DEI efforts since the start of his second term and has taken action against several elite universities, demanding changes to their DEI programs. The administration has already rolled back DEI programs, arrested international students and revoked their visas, and frozen federal funding for schools that have refused to submit to its demands.

The administration froze over $2 billion in multi-year grants and contracts at Harvard University after its leaders refused to make key policy changes, including eliminating DEI programs, resulting in a clash over academic freedom, federal funding and campus oversight as Harvard sued the federal government.

Policy changes were also demanded of Columbia University, though the school later announced several changes to address the Trump administration’s demands, an apparent concession to the federal government.

The NAACP, which filed the case in DC’s federal court, said Friedrich’s ruling “is a victory for Black and Brown students across the country, whose right to an equal education has been directly threatened by this Administration’s corrosive actions and misinterpretations of civil rights law.”

The group representing the teachers’ associations and public school district that sued over the policy in Baltimore also celebrated the ruling there.

“This ruling is a win for educators, students and communities across the nation,” Democracy Forward President and CEO Skye Perryman said. “The nationwide injunction will pause at least part of the chaos the Trump administration is unleashing in classrooms and learning communities throughout the country.”

This story has been updated with additional developments.

CNN’s Sunlen Serfaty and Emily R. Condon contributed to this report.

https://www.cnn.com/2025/04/24/politics/education-dei-policy-blocked/index.html

#FloridaTeacher ♥️🍎            #ProtectOurKids 🙏🏼♥️🍎📚🇺🇲  

Trump’s pick for our precious Children’s  Secretary of Education is an absolute disgrace…  He is making a mockery of quality of their future’s success …

Linda McMahon as the Secretary of Education makes Betsy DeVos almost capable…

Secretary of Education Linda McMahon may have had a juicy steak in mind while speaking at a panel earlier this week because she confused artificial intelligence, also known as AI, with A1, the same name as the popular sauce brand.

McMahon, 76, made the mix-up on April 8 while speaking at the ASU+GSV Summit, an event focusing on educational innovation. The former CEO of World Wrestling Entertainment (WWE) initially referred to the acronym for artificial intelligence correctly, saying, “You know, AI development – I mean, how can we educate at the speed of light if we don’t have the best technology around to do that?”

Things got sticky as McMahon’s speech continued: “A school system that’s going to start making sure that first graders, or even pre-Ks, have A1 teaching in every year. That’s a wonderful thing!”

“Kids are sponges. They just absorb everything,” she added. “It wasn’t all that long ago that it was, ‘We’re going to have internet in our schools!’ Now let’s see A1 and how can that be helpful.”

‘Every school should have access to A.1.’
A.1. Sauce capitalized on McMahon’s blunder by posting an Instagram post on their verified account saying, “You heard her. Every school should have access to A.1.”

Agree, best to start them early,” the picture attached to the post reads.

Other Instagram users loved the response from the Kraft Heinz-owned brand. One user even commented, “I will be buying a bottle or two because of this post.”

People online have even joined in on poking fun at McMahon, with one X user saying, “Education Secretary Linda McMahon keeps referring to AI as A1 and talking about how it will help ‘students at all levels.’ But how can we get those kids to drink it? Linda added, ‘The smarter kids can move up to Thousand Island Dressing'”

USA TODAY contacted Kraft Heinz and the U.S. Department of Education on Saturday but has not received a response…

https://www.usatoday.com/story/news/politics/2025/04/12/linda-mcmahon-a1-instead-of-ai/83059797007/