An Education System that Uplifts

Our Childrens' Futures Should Never Be Negotiable

In light of last night’s mass layoffs across the Department of Education, effectively cutting its workforce to 50% of what it was at the beginning of this administration, I would like to share with you my remarks from a press briefing in DC last month with former Education Secretary Arne Duncan and Senator Chris Murphy.?

Read below as I talk about how the effort to dismantle the Department of Education is not about cutting bureaucracy—it’s about cutting opportunity for millions of children.

Remarks for DC Press Conference

February 2025:

Good morning. My name is Ethan Ashley, and I serve as the CEO of School Board Partners, a national nonprofit dedicated to training, supporting, connecting, and re-electing representative school board members who lead with courage, competence, and impact. Our work spans 190 school districts across 41 states, reaching more than 8 million students.

While our mission is national, my roots are in Louisiana—a state that depends on critical federal K-12 funding to support 1,300 schools and over 686,000 students. I know firsthand how vital this support is, both as a former school board member who served for eight years during the pandemic and as a public school parent.

The Reality of What’s at Stake

I want to talk more about what’s at stake:?

Imagine a school board meeting in a rural district where students are still struggling to recover from pandemic-related learning loss. The board is reviewing a proposal to fund high-dosage tutoring—an evidence-based strategy proven to accelerate student learning. The superintendent presents the data: test scores reveal that students, particularly those from low-income backgrounds, remain behind in reading and math. Teachers are working tirelessly, but they need more support to close the gaps.

The board members know this program could be a game-changer. But there’s a problem—their federal funding which offered direct support to students who needed it the most has been reapportioned to states in unclear and unprotected ways. No more title funding to ensure that students with disabilities or low income students would receive additional services and support. Without the certainty of the federal funds, the board must make an impossible choice: keep mental health counselors, sustain after-school programs, or fund tutoring services.

After a difficult debate, they make the painful decision to reject the tutoring program. Not because they don’t believe in it, but because they simply don’t have the money. That decision means thousands of students will continue to struggle, not because they aren’t capable, but because their school board wasn’t given the resources to support them.

This is not a hypothetical scenario—it’s the reality playing out across the country. School boards are being asked to do more with less, and dismantling the Department of Education and the protected classes of funding support that comes with it would make it impossible for them to address the ongoing academic challenges post-pandemic.

The Facts: Why Federal Funding Matters

Let’s be clear: the effort to dismantle the Department of Education is not about cutting bureaucracy—it’s about cutting opportunity for millions of children. Federal funds make up 11% of total revenue for public elementary and secondary schools, amounting to $101 billion in the 2020–21 school year. These funds are critical, particularly for under-resourced and majority-minority districts, ensuring students have access to quality education, special education services, mental health support, and essential learning programs. Weakening or eliminating this mandate of support would deepen opportunity gaps and put our most vulnerable students at risk. And to be clear, we needed these federal protections because states weren’t providing the support consistently for these vulnerable populations of children in our US education system.?

The Message We Send to Students

And what message does that send to our students? It tells them that their education is not a national priority. That their future is negotiable. That instead of investing in their success, we are willing to strip away the very resources designed to ensure they have a fair shot.

That is unacceptable.

We have seen the latest NAEP scores, and they are clear: student achievement has declined. The pandemic disrupted learning for millions of children, and the gaps in education have only widened. This is not the time to do less—it is the time to do more.

Now more than ever, we must double down on our commitment to public education by increasing investment in schools, supporting teachers, and expanding programs that help students recover and thrive.

Our children deserve an education system that uplifts them—not one that abandons them.

We call on Congress and the administration to reject any effort to weaken or eliminate the Department of Education and instead champion policies that invest in our schools, our educators, and—most importantly—our students’ futures.

Because our children’s futures should never be negotiable.

Ethan Ashley is the Co-Founder and CEO of School Board Partners and a former president and current member of the Orleans Parish School Board. Ethan is also an attorney with a law degree from Howard University, a fervent advocate for racial equity, youth justice, and civil rights, and a father and husband. He has held pivotal roles at esteemed institutions such as the Department of Justice Civil Rights Division, the Urban League of Louisiana, the ADL, and the Washington Lawyers' Committee for Civil Rights and Urban Affairs.