Hundreds of university and high school students representing the student governments of some of the largest schools in the Washington area, DC, will join Friday outside the Department of Education to oppose the destruction of the administration agency.
It is expected that the “hands outside our schools” will result in more than 500 students, according to a spokesman, who added that the rally has been working to increase its permission size to accommodate 1,000 participants north.
The demonstration is organized by the student governments that represent more than 130,000 students in several universities in the region, including the University of Georgetown, the American University and the University of Howard, as well as along the Interesta 95 corridor to the Temple University, according to the organizers.
The headquarters of the Department of Education of the United States, which was ordered closed for the day so officials described as security reasons amid large -scale layoffs, is seen on March 12, 2025 in Washington.
Mark Schiefelbein/AP
The coalition is a “historical alliance” against the “assault on education”, including freedom of expression of the campus and financial aid for students, according to a statement from the organizers.
It has a list of four demands for Congress leaders: preserve and strengthen the department; Make sure all students are protected; oppose the anti-national, equity and inclusion actions that restrict the autonomy of the classroom; and reject the orientation of individual students and academics to express their political views.
“The recent executive orders undermine the basis of our nation and limit opportunities for children from all origins to learn and achieve their maximum potential,” the organizers wrote in a statement. “By making educational spaces more restrictive and not very cozy, these policies will leave the lasting and harmful impacts in our generation and those that follow.”
President Donald Trump shows his firm in an executive order to close the Department of Education, during an event in the East Room of the White House in Washington, on March 20, 2025.
Roberto Schmidt/AFP through Getty Images
President Donald Trump signed an executive order that directed the Secretary of Education, Linda McMahon, to abolish the department and return educational control to the United States. The department has already set aside almost half of its workforce to start reducing the application of the agency.
Critics say that university students will be especially affected if the president continues with the relocation of the responsibilities of the Federal Student Aid, such as the Student Loan portfolio of $ 1.6 billion, and ending federal workers who manage funds for higher education.
The rally is expected to run 4 pm at 5:30 pm and have about a dozen speakers. The organizers also expect Washington, DC, representatives of the State Board of Education of the Secondary School and the former progressive representative Jamaal Bowman, former director, among the list of speakers. The organizers said they have communicated with additional legislators and are working to confirm the final list of speakers.
An opinion shows a poster during a defense of our schools to protest the executive order of President Donald Trump to close the USDepartment of Education outside his building in Washington, on March 21, 2025.
Kent Nishimura/Reuters
The event follows Friday demonstrations of a month that take place in the department, including a “issues of”, “rally” and “applause” for finished federal workers.
More recently, legislators in Capitol Hill have been condemning changes in the department. Senator Elizabeth Warren, D-Mass., Launched a “Save Our School” campaign this week against the attempted administration of dismantling the department. Your campaign will include research, supervision, community participation and demands, according to the senator.
“The federal government has invested in our public schools,” Warren said in an exclusive interview with ABC News. “Remove that from our children so that a handful of billionaires can be even richer is simply ugly, and I will fight it with everything I have.”
Meanwhile, McMahon surprised a dozen Democrats from the House of Representatives on Wednesday when he crashed his press conference outside the department after meeting with them at a closed meeting at the agency.
