Rep. Summer Lee Denounces Executive Order to Dismantle Dept. of Education
**For Immediate Release**
Rep. Summer Lee Denounces Executive Order to Dismantle Dept. of Education
WASHINGTON, D.C. – March 20, 2025 — Today, Congresswoman Summer Lee (PA-12), a member of the House Committee on Education and the Workforce, issued the following statement in response to Trump’s executive action to illegally dismantle the Department of Education.
“Today we are witnessing one of the most dangerous and deliberate attacks on America’s students in modern history. The Trump administration’s plan to dismantle the Department of Education will devastate millions of families, strip resources from schools, and leave our most vulnerable children behind. They can’t just chalk this one up as ‘reform.’ This is an outright assault on public education and a calculated decision to abandon students across the country.
“Without critical funding from the Department of Education, school districts across the country will struggle to provide high quality education for all of their students. Schools will be unequipped to provide children with disabilities access to the special education services they are legally entitled to. Federal funding for critical services like speech therapy, occupational therapy, and individualized learning plans will disappear. Low-income, first-generation, and working students wanting to pursue higher education could lose access to financial assistance and support programs that make higher education attainable.
“This decision won’t just hurt students—it will devastate parents, especially those already struggling to make ends meet. Without federal oversight, families will have nowhere to turn when their schools fail to meet basic educational standards. When discrimination happens, when schools become unsafe, when resources dry up, parents will be left fighting these battles alone. That is what Trump and his billionaire handlers want—to take power away from working families and hand it over to private interests who see education as a business rather than a right.
“The reality is simple: students will suffer, families will suffer, and communities will suffer—all because Trump and his billionaire handlers see education not as a fundamental right, but as an opportunity to profit, whitewash learning, and dismantle access to education for marginalized students. They don’t want education; they want control. Only Congress has the ability to abolish the Department of Education, and we will continue to fight against these unlawful actions.”
Rep. Lee has consistently opposed the dismantling of the Department of Education. She recently spoke in a committee hearing against the restructuring of the department, led letters condemning attacks on diversity, equity, inclusion, co-led efforts demanding investigations into mass firings and workforce violations at the Department of Education, and accessibility programs, and went to the Department of Education to demand answers.
Congresswoman Summer Lee serves on the House Committee on Oversight and Accountability and the Committee on Education and the Workforce. Since taking office in January 2023, she has delivered historic levels of federal investment totaling over $2.4 Billion brought back to Western PA, including over $580 million for infrastructure, over $110 million for affordable transit, over $500 million to keep clean energy manufacturing at home in Pennsylvania, and over $55 million on clean energy efforts in and around schools to help keep our kids and communities safe. These investments will help improve Western Pennsylvania’s infrastructure and transit, ensure cleaner air and drinking water, lower housing costs, fund research institutions, fuel clean manufacturing, fund STEM innovation and entrepreneurship, boost workforce development, and create thousands of good paying union jobs. Lee and her team have also delivered casework and constituent services to over 3,000 constituents with issues ranging from helping our seniors and disabled community access Medicare and social security to helping folks secure housing and helping families with immigration support and passports.