100+ Constituents Rally in Bitter Cold, Call on Rep. Lawler to Protect Public Schools
On Wednesday, February 19th, more than 100 constituents from the NY-17 Congressional District, comprising parents, teachers, students, education advocates, and others, convened outside Rep. Mike Lawler’s Pearl River Office located at One Blue Hill Plaza, to protest the Trump administration’s proposal to eliminate the Department of Education.
On Monday, the Department of Government Efficiency (DOGE) cut $370 million in funding for diversity, equity, and inclusion (DEI) at the Department of Education. Musk said on Twitter that his operation had revoked 70 DEI training grants within the department.DOGE has cut approximately $1 billion in funding to the Department of Education, with the majority of the money going to the Institute of Education Sciences (IES), which researches to improve education.
The Working Families Party organized the rally that started at 12:30 pm, which focused on cuts to the Department of Education. President Trump proposed dissolving the department while campaigning in 2024, and as evidenced by his efforts to dissolve USAID, he is not opposed to completely scrapping long-standing federal programs. Members of the New York Working Families Party, Citizen Action NY, Community Voices Heard, VOCAL-NY, and other community groups were present, speakers included: Carole Anderson – Former East Ramapo school board member, Jennifer Cabrera – Westchester-Putnam Working Families Party Chair, Isaiah Fenichel – Citizen Action Hudson Valley Organizer, Melita Corselli – North Salem Public School parent.
“I was born into a working-class family. Education combined with years of hard work helped us to reach the middle class,” said Jennifer Cabrera, parent and chair of the Westchester-Putnam chapter of the New York Working Families Party. “And now Elon Musk and Donald Trump want to deny families like mine the opportunity to succeed. They want to defund our public schools, taking resources away from our kids and communities as part of their plot to ransack our government and sell it for parts. We’re here to tell [Lawler] that he may be afraid of Donald Trump or of Elon Musk, but the people he should be afraid of are us, his constituents because we are not going to allow all of this to happen and re-elect him.”
“Our children deserve an education that meets their diverse needs and gives them every chance to thrive. These children are not numbers on a paper or products of a zip code; they have real faces,” said Melita Corselli, a North Salem public school parent whose children rely on federal education funding for special needs. “They are the kids who wave at you in the supermarket or whose laughter you hear at the park. They are our future, and it’s our responsibility to protect them, no matter where, how, or to whom they were born.”
Background provided by the 100+ NY-17 Constituents
- An order from the Office of Management and Budget freezing federal funding caused mass chaos and confusion, leading to the shutdown of Medicaid portals. Despite a federal judge’s injunction that the spending freeze be halted, programs like Head Start have been cut off from funding.
- Elon Musk’s associates also have access to the Department of Education and President Trump is preparing an executive order to abolish it.
- Abolishing the Department of Education would cut K-12 education by 8%, mainly from programs supporting low-income students and students with special needs.
- In his 2024 election, Elon Musk funded $1,727,639 of super PAC spending on Rep. Lawler’s behalf, a fact which Rep. Lawler has publicly bragged about.
Lawler has also expressed strong support for ending New York City’s status as a Sanctuary City and eliminating congestion pricing for those driving into the city, both high-priority items on President Trump’s wish list. Amidst the proliferation of rumors that Congressman Lawler will run for New York Governor in 2026, the congressional representative for NY-17 must navigate a delicate balance between advancing the Republican party’s agenda and mitigating the discontent of a fragmented electorate.
