By Eric Holzapfel
Chief Engagement Officer
I find myself in a state of déjà vu. Eight years ago, I stood in my office uncertain about what effects the federal election would have on the clients and community I served. At the time, I was in charge of an immigration program for LGBTQ+ Latinos at Entre Hermanos. Our clients expressed a great deal of fear around the anti-immigrant and mass deportation rhetoric coming from the Trump administration. Over the course of the Trump administration, many policies had dire effects on the clients we served but in turn were successfully defeated, specifically public charge and family separation. Public charge had a particularly detrimental effect on immigrant communities accessing public benefits. And family separation inhumanely, as I personally witnessed working with attorneys at a detention center in Laredo, separated thousands of children from their mothers and families. We also saw great victories on the state level to protect our immigrant communities, including Keep Washington Working (SB 5497) and a slew of successful legal challenges by then attorney general, Bob Ferguson.
Now, serving as the Chief Engagement Officer of the League of Education Voters Foundation (LEV), I find myself wondering what the results of the federal election will have on the community we serve: students furthest away from education opportunities. At this current moment, there is a great deal of speculation on what the Trump administration will do in regard to federal policy and funding for education. The Presidential Advisory Commission — Department of Government Efficiency (DOGE) and its chairmen, Elon Musk and Vivek Ramaswamy, have pledged deep cuts in federal spending, including to education. The nominee for Education Secretary, Linda McMahon, has little experience in education and has been a fierce advocate for Parents’ Rights, a policy platform that typically erodes the civil liberties of youth (i.e. LGBTQ+ youth), and school choice (i.e. school vouchers), which erodes our public education system. There is also speculation that the administration will attempt to implement its policies through strings-attached funding through Title I (financial assistance to school districts for children from low-income families) and Title IX (prohibiting discrimination on the basis of sex), but at this point, it is purely speculation.
With uncertainty on the next four years of education policies and funding at the federal level and the increase in anti-immigrant and anti-LGBTQ+ rhetoric emanating from the incoming administration, it is more important than ever to have strong education advocates at the state level. LEV looks forward to working with incoming and existing leaders in the executive, legislature, and the attorney general’s office to ensure the civil liberties and safety of Washington’s immigrant and LGBTQ+ students are safeguarded, as well as to ensure the appropriate federal funding streams persist for our state’s public education system.
Over the coming four years, LEV will be active in Olympia to ensure equitable policies and funding for Washington students. We will also continue engaging with student and parent groups, and nonprofit partners to highlight their experiences and expertise and ensure they have the knowledge about education governance and policy in our state. We cannot do this work without your support.
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