President Donald J. Trump’s recent closure of the U.S. Department of Education has sparked fears about how communities will fare without federal funding for their schools and another layer of accountability for school districts that deny students access to a quality education.
While D.C.-based educator Preshona Ambri awaits word about the amount of federal dollars that District public and public charter schools stand to lose, she said she remains in solidarity with parents who’ve long fought to directly control their child’s academic trajectory.
“I look forward to the release of the grip…of overbearing standards that leave students unequipped for life, writing and analysis,” Ambri told The Informer. “It seems without a federal agency to distribute those funds, they’re essentially leaving us to our local funding but we will find where the funding is flowing to and get it for our children and families.”
For more than a decade, Ambri has served as an instructor in the Sankofa Homeschool Collective. She said her experience in the D.C.-area homeschool community, one of this nation’s largest, allowed her to teach civics, biology, and more recently GED preparation, in a manner most relevant to those whose families are seeking autonomy from a historically racist system.
As Ambri explained to The Informer, her stints with Sankofa Homeschool Collective, Roots Public Charter School in Northwest and Kuumba Learning Center, based in Southeast, have informed her nuanced position on the issue of school choice— which she presented on Instagram shortly after the Trump administration touted the need for public charter schools and vouchered private schools that are accountable to parents.
Ambri said she wants to incite conversation about how parents, especially those from low-income communities, can and should have a voice and more choices for their child’s education.
“Now, do we need more integrity and accountability within those choices? Absolutely. But that doesn’t mean we throw the baby out with the bathwater,” Ambri, founder of I Am Sun Holistic GED Program at Sankofa Homeschool Collective, said. “Public schools should not go away, and neither should public charters or private school vouchers because parents do, in fact, crave choice and need free [education].”
Without an Education Department, a D.C. Parent Continues to Organize for Power
Amid concerns in the 1990s about low-performing public schools, the District became an epicenter of school choice with the launch of the D.C. Public Charter School Board. Less than a decade later, officials upped the ante with the D.C. Opportunity Scholarship Program, through which District families receive government subsidies for a private school education.
Today, D.C. has 134 public charter schools managed by more than 60 local education agencies, while D.C. Public Schools (DCPS), an education agency in its own right, has 117 schools under its purview.
Earlier this year, thousands of District families wrapped up the MySchool lottery, a process where students rank their preference for the public or public charter school they will attend during the next academic year. Those who embark on this annual journey have at their disposal a bevy of public schools, public charter schools, and application-based schools. Education experts credit this scenario, in part, for the breakdown in community cohesion, students’ long cross-city commutes, under-enrollment in Ward 7 and 8 D.C. public schools, and, more recently, funding disparities between public schools and public charter schools.
For nearly a decade, DaSean Jones has used his voice as a member of Parents Amplifying Voices in Education D.C. (PAVE DC) to engage the U.S. Department of Education, along with the D.C. Council and local education leaders, in discussions about these and other education issues of significance. While Jones, a father of four from Ward 7, spoke proudly about what he and other PAVE DC organizers have been able to accomplish, he acknowledged the U.S. Department of Education as a critical tool in advancing causes near and dear to his heart.
“As a parent, I’ve learned to stay actively engaged in my child’s education,” Jones said as he explained what the Trump administration wants to accomplish. “From what I read, Trump wants to get rid of liberal ideologies and the protections that people have when it comes to education.”
Jones went on to predict what would become of his comrades’ organizing efforts with the agency no longer in existence.
“It takes away the voice of the people within our city who won’t be governed by a state,” Jones told The Informer. “Building that rapport will be much harder because there are fewer people available to advocate for and serve our kids.”
In his role as a PAVE organizer, Jones has been making the rounds at mayoral budget forums while speaking with parents, agency heads and elected officials about the looming budget deficit. To this day, he continues to express concern about how to sustain early childhood education, which he credits for his children’s academic success at the K-12 and undergraduate levels.
“My children are benefitting from a Head Start program overseen by the Department of Parks and Recreation,” Jones said while also giving a shout out to the now-shuttered Eagle Academy Public Charter School, where his young ones also received their early childhood education. “I know it from seeing recreation centers open from 9 a.m. to 3 p.m. to help parents with unemployment and give our children the headstart they need as they progress through education.”
Even with the uncertainty around the education department’s closure, Jones said he’s finding solace in what he called a time-tested strategy that has helped local parents effect change.
“We’ve made progress with reading and math scores,” he told The Informer. “It’s a small step, but it’s a step no state has made.”
State Board Rep. Jacque Patterson Keeps His Sights on Quality Education as a Civil Right
In 1980, the U.S. Department of Education opened as a fulfillment of President Jimmy Carter’s goal of consolidating federal education programs and addressing educational inequity.
Throughout its nearly 50-year existence, the U.S. Department of Education has been responsible for overseeing national education policy, administering federal assistance programs, enforcing anti-discrimination laws, and distributing federal funds to schools with a sizable low-income or disabled student population.
Such a situation happened just weeks ago when the now-defunct education department told DCPS officials that it would investigate the school system’s ability to provide a quality education to special-needs students.
A spokesperson for the Executive Office of the Mayor told The Informer that, as of March 24, there’s no information available about the amount of federal funding the District stands to lose with the education department’s closure.
At the time of its closure, the U.S. Department of Education stood 4,400 staff members strong and commanded an annual budget of $268 billion. In a March 20 White House communique, the Trump administration touted the need for empowering states in the regulation of education.
They also questioned the education department’s success in raising test scores and U.S. students’ academic standing around the world.
Despite the Trump administration’s rhetoric about school choice, some people, like At-large State Board of Education Representative Jacque Patterson, identify Project 2025 as the most accurate representation of what the president sets out to accomplish in his second term.
“This administration had set up a plan, which they wrote and published, [to] come for the civil rights of students who are the most vulnerable,” said Patterson, a Ward 8 resident and D.C. public charter school parent. “I knew we were going to go down this road and we needed to have some protection for our children.”
Last year, Patterson conducted a hearing where his colleagues and public witnesses discussed access to a high-quality education as a civil right. His ultimate goal, as he explained to The Informer, centered on securing changes to the D.C. Home Rule charter to ensure that the District can be held accountable to students and parents.
With the U.S. Department of Education no longer in existence, and a state board committee soon to discuss Trump’s recent executive order, Patterson said he will keep engaging parents, nonprofit leaders, and other relevant parties, in discussion about what he called a civil rights crusade that’s become even more relevant.
“At the local level [it’s about] ensuring that a child can get a quality education,” Patterson told The Informer. “Without state[hood], we have a home rule charter that can be revoked, but at the end of the day, our job is to educate children and we should be able to make sure that that happens, one way or another.”