MTA backs Healey administration’s response to Trump DEI order
MTA backs Healey administration’s response to Trump DEI order
Massachusetts Teachers Association President Max Page and Vice President Deb McCarthy released the following statement in response to state Education Secretary Patrick Tutwiler’s refusal to sign a Trump administration order to dismantle public school DEI initiatives:
The MTA is pleased that Secretary of Education Patrick Tutwiler refused to sign a chilling order that demanded our public schools dismantle diversity, equity and inclusion programs.
The Trump administration’s attempt to blackmail states into abandoning their commitments to embracing the full diversity of students and educators furthers this president’s continued attacks on public education. The administration’s tactics harm students, families and communities and must be resisted, which Governor Maura Healey’s administration did today.
The MTA is pleased that Secretary of Education Patrick Tutwiler refused to sign a chilling order that demanded our public schools dismantle diversity, equity and inclusion programs. We believe this order is constitutionally illegal as well as educationally immoral. We in the Massachusetts Teachers Association will always defend the rights of students to learn and the full academic freedom of educators to teach.
The risk of losing our identity as a state that strives in both planning and practice to include and appreciate diverse perspectives in our public schools is a far greater cost than the monetary loss Trump has threatened if state education officials throughout the country do not sign the letter sent by his Department of Education.
Should it become necessary, the MTA trusts that justice will prevail in court over any attempts by the Trump administration to rob our students of their right to services.