Educators for Excellence Urges Congress to Vote No on the Budget Reconciliation Bill

A Statement from Educators for Excellence Co-Founder and CEO, Evan Stone

Let’s call what’s happening in the halls of Congress this week what it is: a deliberate and shameful attempt to hide disastrous policymaking from public view.

Likely as soon as tomorrow, the Senate will vote on a newly revised 1,000+ page budget reconciliation bill–without public hearings, without a final budget score, and without giving lawmakers, let alone the American people, a chance to understand what’s tucked away in its pages. Under pressure from President Trump, the House is expected to rubber-stamp it with only the bare minimum debate required by law.

As a teacher-led organization, we’ve heard from educators across the country who are deeply alarmed by what this bill would mean for their students and communities. Just two weeks ago, dozens of teachers shared these concerns directly with lawmakers across both sides of the aisle. They made clear what this bill means: devastating Medicaid cuts that will strip health care from families; an effective slashing of the Supplemental Nutritional Assistance Program (SNAP) that burdens states and threatens food access for millions of children; and a private school voucher scheme disguised as a tax credit for the wealthy, siphoning billions from public education.

Educators are clear: this bill will hurt children, especially those facing steep barriers to opportunity. They see what happens when kids come to school hungry, when families can’t access care, and when public resources are drained from the classrooms that need them most. The question we should all be asking right now is this: Do members of Congress even care about kids?

Educators for Excellence, alongside tens of thousands of our educator members and a coalition of over a dozen organizations, urges Congress to vote no. This isn’t just bad policy. It’s a betrayal of the American dream and a failure of government to live up to its most basic responsibility: protecting and uplifting the most vulnerable among us.