United Campus Workers of Georgia Protest Highlights Growing Tension Around Department of Education Cuts
In downtown Athens it is not uncommon to be walking around and stumble upon the occasional protest, but last week’s United Campus Workers of Georgia protest at the arch on Mar. 19, 2025 hit a little closer to home for some.
UCWGA is a wall-to-wall higher education union which offers membership to UGA staff, graduate assistants, researchers and more. They’ve been focusing their efforts around protesting the recent cuts to the Department of Education by the Trump Administration. The Department of Education has recently put in action a reduction in force that will affect almost 50% of the department’s workers. UCWGA part time organizer Bryant Barnes emphasized these issues saying,
“I think before spring break, we had heard that across campus, 48 people, their funding had been essentially terminated because of funding cuts. Fortunately, all but one of those folks were able to be replaced.”
Reports show that these cuts have also terminated over $600 million in divisive teacher training grants which used taxpayer funds to train teachers and education departments on topics the department considers inappropriate, such as Critical Race Theory, Diversity, Equity and Inclusion.
Though many democrats are concerned about the effect that these cuts will have on the ability of schools to function and research at the university level, republicans generally think that these cuts will give more agency to education at the local and state levels. Vice chair of the College Republicans at UGA Thomas Chambers agrees with this sentiment saying,
“We’re not advocating for any less money to go to education. What we’re advocating for is that the Department of Education has been a failure in terms of the money we spend on it and where education is today.”
World Population Review’s education rankings by country has the US ranked 31st, behind much of Western Europe, parts of Asia and Canada.