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‘An all-out assault:’ Texas educators stand up to Trump, Abbott attacks on public education

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Sheria Smith, president of the American Federation of Government Employees Local 252, spoke to hundreds of educators outside Sen. Ted Cruz's office on June 20 in Dallas. (Photo by Katie Serrano)

By Katie Serrano

June 23, 2025

Hundreds of educators rallied outside of US Sen. Ted Cruz’s office in Dallas on Friday,  condemning his support for President Donald Trump’s gutting of the US Education Department.

When President Donald Trump directed the secretary of education to dismantle the US Education Department on March 20, he also shuttered the Dallas Office of Civil Rights.

The office handles civil rights complaints, ensures equal educational opportunities, and addresses issues such as disability rights.

“ That office, which was the busiest civil rights office in the Department of Education and handled every complaint in the state of Texas, is shuttered,” Sheria Smith, president of the American Federation of Government Employees Local 252 told COURIER Texas. “That means that Texas citizens who have complaints about how their children are treated in taxpayer funded schools have no recourse.”

Smith, who worked at the Dallas OCR before the branch was placed on administrative leave, led hundreds of educators to Sen. Ted Cruz’s office in Dallas on Friday to condemn his support of Trump’s dismantling of the federal education agency.

“ Ted Cruz has forgotten who he serves,” she said. “This administration is wasting $7 million a month of our tax dollars by keeping us out of work. We are not getting the services from the Department of Education and neither are your students.”

In May, a federal judge blocked Trump’s executive order to shut down the Education Department and ordered the agency to reinstate employees who were fired in mass layoffs. But according to Smith, employees of the Dallas OCR have not returned to work.

“ They have not allowed us back into offices, they have confiscated our equipment,” she said. “We are unable to work for citizens in Texas or the general American public. They put us back on payroll, so we are earning our salaries, and though individually that’s fine, we are all taxpayers, and as a taxpayer it’s extremely wasteful and concerning. We’d rather be at work for our fellow citizens.”

Employees at the Dallas OCR analyzed educational data, and processed Title I grants, student loans, and student loan forgiveness applications, according to Smith.

 ”We’re gonna have to play a lot of catch up when we do go back,” Smith said. “You’re not gonna have our normal reaction times, our normal resolution times, everything will be delayed because this administration forced us to not work for over three months.”

‘Abbott shoved vouchers down the throat of Texas’

Speakers at the rally also condemned the creation of private school vouchers and lack of public school funding in Texas. 

On May 3, Gov. Greg Abbott signed his $1 billion voucher plan into law, giving public funds to private school students to spend on tuition. Critics said the voucher program will deplete already meager public school funding in Texas.

“ We have an all out assault on education in this country,”  said Patricia Doyle, a member of  American Federation of Teachers Local 2260 and Dallas ISD employee. “Gov. Abbott just shoved vouchers down the throat of the citizens of Texas without allowing a vote from the people, and he did it to please his billionaire friends and corporate donors.”

“He under-funds public education, starves it, says it’s failing, then gives your public tax money to private schools,” Doyle added.

Abbott increased the basic per student allotment by $55, which is the first increase since 2019, and falls short of what school officials say they need to keep up with inflation. The funding is included in an $8.5 billion school funding bill Abbott signed on June 4.

Cruz also proposed his own nationwide school voucher plan in May, calling school choice the “civil rights issue of the 21st century.” His “Universal School Choice Act” provides federal tax credits for people and businesses that contribute to nonprofits that grant scholarships to private elementary and secondary school students.

“They provide the empty promise that parents can now choose where to send their students, even though private schools do the choosing,” Doyle said. “So if your child doesn’t fit the profile of their school, if you’re not the right race or have the right gender identity or sexual orientation, or have a physical or intellectual disability, you won’t be admitted.”

Advocates  spoke with Cruz’s office about amending his voucher bill, including added accountability measures like requiring standardized tests in private schools. 

Trump’s “One Big Beautiful Bill” already provides up to $5 billion a year in federal tax credits for people who donate to nonprofits that provide scholarships and focus on alternatives to public education. Cruz wants to double that number to $10 billion a year, and remove limits for families making 300% of their area’s median income.

“They don’t even want an income limit to ensure that this doesn’t go to families that can already afford to send their kids to private school,” said Ayaan Moledina, federal policy director at Students Engaged in Advancing Texas. “These voucher scams are tax breaks for billionaires and friends of Donald Trump and Greg Abbott.”

“It’s an attempt to segregate our communities and our public schools,” he added. “They wanna take us back. This is an attempt to divide us. But we won’t let that happen. Sen. Cruz is the author of the voucher bill in Congress, and we’ll call on him to take it down.”

A war on diversity, equity, and inclusion

The Texas Legislature approved Senate Bill 12, a ban on diversity, equity, and inclusion (DEI) policies and programs in public K-12 schools. Abbott signed it into law on Friday, expanding on a DEI ban for public universities that he signed in 2023.

The bill was a legislative priority for both Abbott and Lt. Gov. Dan Patrick. It prevents schools from developing policies or training that reference race, ethnicity, gender identity, or sexual orientation.

It also bans schools from using DEI as a factor in hiring decisions, creates an avenue for parents to file complaints about violations, and requires districts to create policies for disciplining employees who engage in DEI-related tasks. 

“That bill is allowing the state to discriminate against Texas students based on their disability, based on their race, based on their national nationality, based their gender,” Smith said. “This is not to protect our kids. The Office for Civil Rights was to protect our kids, and they shuttered that.”

The demonstration at Cruz’s office on Friday was part of the 32nd Biennial Texas AFT Convention, which was held in Dallas from June 20-21.

CATEGORIES: EDUCATION

Author

  • Katie Serrano

    Katie Serrano is the DFW Political Reporter for Courier Texas. She received both her Bachelor’s and Master’s Degree from the University of Arkansas in Editorial Journalism and News Narratives. She is passionate about making local journalism accessible and engaging young audiences, and has worked in editing, content management, newsletter production, social media marketing and data reporting. When not obsessing over the news she can be found with her nose in a romance novel, walking her Bernese Mountain Dog around her Lower Greenville neighborhood, or watching reruns of The Great British Bake Off.

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