Trump’s enablers must pay a political price for increased costs of back-to-school essentials, cuts to public education, and embracing child-endangering AI.
This article was originally published on our Substack. Read it here.
The end of summer is always a stressful time for teachers and parents of school age children. Though not a parent myself, as the son of a lifelong middle school math teacher (and the recent son-in-law of a lifelong high school English teacher), I’ve seen first-hand the amount of time, effort, and money that goes into getting children and classrooms ready for the school year. New clothes, new backpacks, new school supplies, new back up school supplies, classroom decorations. The bills add up quickly—especially because teachers are often forced to foot the bill for classroom supplies.
This year, however, parents and teachers will find their wallets more stressed than ever. A new analysis from Groundwork Collaborative and The Century Foundation found that the cost of school supplies have increased by 7.3% compared to 2024. And that’s just one line item increase. Grocery prices to pack a lunch are up. Food assistance and school lunch programs have been gutted. Technology and clothing prices have spiked thanks to Trump’s tariffs (and piggybacking price increases from companies with market power). Families—especially those with already tight budgets—will feel the impact of these damaging Republican policy choices acutely. As I’ve outlined before, Democrats can use congressional oversight tactics to seize the initiative and ensure voters know exactly where to lay the blame.
This Back to School Season, Parents Need HELP
As parents and teachers pay more to prepare for the school year, the Trump administration is hell-bent on wholly destroying the country’s public education system. Linda McMahon, professional wrestling magnate-turned Education Secretary, is leading the administration’s efforts to dismantle the agency she heads in order to turn education policy over to the states. School districts have been left in limbo throughout the summer as Trump’s Office of Management and Budget withheld, and then sporadically released, over $6 billion in congressionally appropriated funds for before and after school programs, adult education services, teacher training, and more. This ongoing chaos makes the already difficult jobs of educating and parenting that much harder.
The Senate Health, Education, Labor, and Pensions (HELP) committee and the House Committee on Education and Workforce can use the back to school season to raise the salience of Trump’s many policies that are straining parents’ pocketbooks and undermining the quality of children’s education.
To their credit, the Bernie Sanders-led minority in the Senate HELP Committee has been vocal on aspects of these issues over the summer—sending letters urging the release of funds, introducing legislation to raise teacher pay, and opposing regulations that restrict access to technical and adult educations. These were all necessary efforts to stand against Trump’s actions in real time. But the key to making these issues stick, and ensuring that the public is informed, is sustained pressure that capitalizes on when people are paying the most attention.
Parents may not have heard about Trump’s Ed Department shenanigans over the summer. There’s a lot of families who don’t want to read about politics and school on their vacations. Many parents are likely only now realizing that school supply prices have increased, and may not intuitively connect the 5.9% increase in pencil costs to Trump’s tariff policies from May, when Trump said children should get used to only having 5 pencils. It’s up to Democrats to connect these dots, and to re-up Trump’s pencil gaffe, as the school year gets underway and parents begin to feel the material impacts of his policies.
There are several congressional oversight and messaging tools that Democrats have at their disposal. Republicans will never agree to hold official hearings on the increasing price of school supplies, but Democrats can organize their own informal hearings. Senators and Congresspeople on the HELP Committees should work to identify the school districts in their states that are most affected and invite parents and teachers to speak at the hearings. They can also invite school administrators to speak on how delayed grant releases affected the planning and implementation of after school programs and other extracurriculars.
And “invite to speak” need not only be from the podium during hearings. Videos can be solicited and social media bites at the apple taken by Senate staff to find the voices that hit the algorithms just right. Virality is hard to predict, but a producing a high volume of output makes it likelier—especially compared to a one statements read by a Senator and posted on an official YouTube account.
Democrats must also hammer home the fact that Trump’s tariffs are to blame. It will be difficult to get administration officials in front of a microphone to testify about the issue (though Democrats should insist and make hay about any lack of transparency). But Democrats could invite business leaders—that is, those that are willing to speak out against an authoritarian hurting their business—in the school supplies sector to talk about how tariffs are affecting their pricing decisions, supply chains, and hiring choices. The Government Accountability Office is also a helpful resource to get more detailed investigations about the effect of tariffs, grant delays, and impending SNAP and school lunch funding cuts that will soon impact the ability for children to have a good meal during the school day. Democrats can request investigations on any and all of these issues, coordinating press conferences and media hits as they issue requests, investigations begin, and findings roll out.
What happens if the Administration stonewalls a request? Well, that’s just another opportunity to return to the message! What does the Trump Administration know about the school supply crisis, and why are they hiding the truth? The cover ups may not be worse than the policy crimes, but they can help amplify awareness of the travesties occurring on an ongoing basis.
Trump’s tariffs and the so-called One Big Beautiful Bill are horrible policies that will have real, devastating consequences for parents across the country. But the only way Republicans will pay a commensurate political price is if Democrats keep these policies in the news, connect them to communities’ on the ground experiences, and sustain pressure on the administration officials responsible.
Defend Children by Opposing Big Tech’s AI
Democrats also have an opportunity to stand up against Big Tech and Republicans at the same time, making the pitch that the Democratic party is protecting the youth while the other party and its backers endanger them. Last week, Reuters published bombshell reporting on Meta’s AI policies for its chatbot’s interactions with children. Meta’s guidelines, which they claimed have now been amended, allowed for disturbing and inappropriate sexual conversations with teenagers and children:
Reuters reporting provides a look behind the curtain to the policies that, as previous reporting about Meta and other AI chat bots shows, are putting children at tremendous risk.
Republican Senator Josh Hawley, a frequent Big Tech critic, has already sent a letter to Meta and Mark Zuckerberg requesting documents about the guidelines and announcing a formal investigation. Democrats cannot allow Hawley to be the most prominent voice—especially as Big Tech and AI have fallen in line behind Trump 2.0. Zuckerberg himself donated $1 million to Trump’s inauguration fund. Just days after the inauguration, Meta agreed to pay Trump $25 million to settle a bogus lawsuit alleging First Amendment violations for suspending Trump’s account after the January 6th insurrection.
It’s not just Meta either—the entire Artificial Intelligence agency is cozying up to the administration. OpenAI made a deal with Trump to be a part of a $500 billion investment into AI infrastructure. Prolific AI investor Marc Andreessen has had the President’s ear on AI policy and personnel. Nvidia, the manufacturer of chips used for AI, agreed to give the US a 15% cut of its revenue on sales to China. In return, the industry is benefitting from lax oversight and the gutting of environmental protections from carcinogenic data centers.
Democrats cannot be afraid to stand up to the industry, and Hawley’s investigation is a perfect vehicle to do so. Hawley is opening the investigation as chair of the Senate Judiciary Subcommittee on Crime and Terrorism, and Democrats would be wise to jump on board and expand its purview. Call on the CEO’s of other companies with questionable chat bot records to testify as well. If Zuckerberg appears for a hearing, ask about the chatbot policies towards interactions with children, but also expand the purview of the investigation by grilling him on the bribes to Trump and the environmental and health impacts of AI data centers.
Following Trump’s reelection and Silicon Valley’s support for his presidency, some centrists lamented that the left had pushed Big Tech away. Democrats had done too much enforcing of the law! It’s time, they argued, to revert back to a standard of minimal oversight and scrutiny that allowed tech companies to ignore laws and regulations as they saw fit.
That is nonsense. People need representatives who are willing to fight on their behalf, even if giant corporations stop sending them campaign donations as a result. As AI companies pollute both the minds of children and the environments in which they live, one party needs to stand up for people’s health and safety.
Image Credit: President Donald Trump signs executive orders alongside Secretary of Education Linda McMahon, Wednesday, April 23, 2025. (Official White House Photo by Molly Riley)