NEA response to Trump administration’s proposed 2027 budget

WASHINGTON - The White House today unveiled an outline of the Trump administration's 2027 budget proposal, calling for $73 billion in cuts to domestic spending, jeopardizing critical investments in public education and essential services. The proposal also calls for a $3.2 billion cut to the Department of Education. In response, National Education Association President Becky Pringle released the following statement:

"Trump's budget doesn't just confirm what educators already know, but it also exposes an administration that has utterly abandoned working Americans. This administration is sending an unmistakable message: students, educators, and working families do not matter. It turns its back on students with disabilities, students from low-income families, students who live in rural areas - students that need more support, not less. At a moment when educators are stretched and being asked to do more with less, this proposal rips even more resources away from the classrooms and communities that need them most, all while handing more power and privilege to the wealthy and well-connected.

"By gutting funding for Full-Service Community Schools, Teacher Quality Partnerships, the Fund for Improvement of Postsecondary Education, and Minority-Serving Institutions, this budget attacks efforts to ensure every student, no matter their race, ZIP code, or family income, can thrive in school and in their community. These programs help educators meet the needs of all students, strengthen pathways into the profession, and support colleges and universities working to expand opportunities for our most underserved students. Eliminating them only deepens existing inequalities.

"This budget isn't abstract. It will have devastating, real-world consequences: children going hungry, families unable to keep the lights on, Americans priced out of even the most basic stability. This is not merely irresponsible; it is cruel. It is a wholesale betrayal of our students, our families, and the very values this country stands for.

"While this budget cuts critical funding for students and schools at every turn, it pours more money into ICE. What ICE causes is fear and trauma. Students and educators are afraid for their own safety - afraid for their own lives. An administration that prioritizes spending more money to terrorize our schools and communities over funding our schools and communities is not an administration that cares about the needs of the American people.

"Students and educators need a budget that funds and protects public education, safeguards essential programs, and invests in our communities. Not a budget that funds fear."