AFT Holds 2,000 Events, Activities During March 4 Day of Action to ‘Protect Our Kids’

WASHINGTON—Educators, students, parents and community allies participated in more than 2,000 events and social media actions throughout the country on Tuesday, March 4, as part of the AFT’s 1.8 million-member “Protect Our Kids” Day of Action to fight back against President Donald Trump and Elon Musk’s cruel and irresponsible attacks on public schools. Participants called on lawmakers to protect our kids and take a stand against actions that will hurt millions of students to fund tax cuts for billionaires. 

Trump and Musk’s devastating cuts to the Department of Education will slash opportunities for low-income children, kids with disabilities and first-generation college students. This will force communities to raise property taxes if they want to keep critical support for vulnerable populations, said AFT President Randi Weingarten during a virtual news conference on Tuesday.

“This is robbing Peter to pay Elon,” Weingarten said. “It's just really reckless and cruel that we would do this to our schoolchildren. Kids really need this funding, and we’ve fought for years to make sure they get it.”

Participants united to defend and expand support for public schools so that all kids are engaged and can thrive. Among the events: a virtual teach-in in Detroit; a rally at the New York State Capitol in Albany; a “clap-in” for students in Cincinnati; “walk-ins” in Chicago and Albuquerque, N.M.; letter writing in Pittsburgh and Fairfax County, Va.; and news conferences in Florida, New Jersey and Puerto Rico.

“The message is really clear and simple: It’s not okay to rob students of the education they need and deserve in order to give big tax cuts to the wealthy,” said Weingarten, who attended events in Albany and New Haven, Conn. “What you’re seeing on the ground across America are people—parents and teachers, together—saying our kids need these services. We cannot cut them.”

In Cincinnati, participants held a rally outside the home of Vice President JD Vance, who wrote about growing up poor in Ohio in his memoir, Hillbilly Elegy. 

“But yet he is willing to stand by now and turn his back on his working-class roots in order to line the pockets of the wealthy,” said Ohio Federation of Teachers President Melissa Cropper during the virtual news conference. “That is not acceptable to us here in Ohio.”

National Education Association President Becky Pringle told news conference listeners, “Americans love their public schools, and they want to make sure they have more resources, not less.”

AFT Massachusetts President Jessica Tang said, “We need the support of the federal government to be able to provide all of the services that our students deserve.”

The Trump administration’s assault on historic federally funded education programs would have disastrous consequences for the 26 million students living in poverty who count on Title I programs that support literacy and math skills. Its plan would threaten special education services and the critical support that 7.5 million kids with disabilities rely on.

During the AFT’s virtual news conference, Rachelle Crow-Hercher said her eldest daughter received speech and language therapy for seven years at her public school in Michigan. Her now-eighth-grade child “loves theater and choir and debate, and most people don’t even know that she had a stutter.”

“The worry is without funding or the department, special education services will cease to exist for families like mine,” said Crow-Hercher, who co-directs the Michigan Education Justice Coalition. “No billionaires’ tax break is worth sacrificing the education of our children.” 

The president is also putting up roadblocks for those looking for pathways to good middle-class jobs out of high school. Cutting career and technical education for 12 million students threatens their job opportunities, while diminishing Pell grants and student loans will make college unaffordable for 10 million working-class families.

And the administration is planning to impose the president’s unpopular plan for private school vouchers that would siphon federal money for public schools into unaccountable private hands.

Sonia Vasquez-Luna, Labor Council for Latin American Advancement executive board member, told conference listeners: “I can envision school counselors and social workers—essential lifelines for students navigating both language and cultural barriers—being let go, leaving Latino families without the guidance they relied on. This isn't just a distant policy decision, it is a direct attack on the future of our communities.”