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TRUMP’S D.C. TAKEOVER FORETELLS HOW FEDERAL OCCUPATIONS WILL
THREATEN EDUCATION  
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Brianna Nargiso Newton
October 6, 2025
The Progressive
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_ Military and police crackdowns on communities are costly and have
long-term, harmful impacts on millions of students and families. _

, DT phots1/Shutterstock

 

In August, President Donald Trump invoked
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Section 740 of the 1973 D.C. Home Rule Act
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Police Department (MPD) of Washington, D.C., deploying
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approximately 800 National Guard troops to locations across the city,
including the National Mall, Union Station, and surrounding sites.
While federal troops have been deployed
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in the nation’s capital before, this marked the first time
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that the city’s police force was placed under direct federal control
specifically through the use of the Home Rule Act, a move that
restructured local authority rather than merely bolstering security.

In January, the Trump Administration revoked
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longstanding federal protections that had barred immigration
enforcement at “sensitive locations” such as schools, churches,
and courthouses. Federal officials have stressed
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that schools themselves are not sites of deployment (yet
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and under federal guidelines, Immigration and Customs Enforcement
(ICE) agents cannot enter
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school areas that are not open to the public without explicit
permission or a judicial warrant. 

But for many families, their greatest fears are not of what could
happen to them inside the classroom, but in the act of getting there.
In Washington, D.C., uniformed soldiers
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and non-uniformed federal agents at bus stops and metro entrances have
reshaped how safe the city feels, even for students who are U.S.
citizens. That anxiety grew this spring when the U.S. Supreme Court
granted a stay
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that allowed immigration officers to rely on racial profiling
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while detaining people in ongoing raids in Los Angeles, California, a
decision that civil rights groups warn
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could intensify discriminatory enforcement.

District of Columbia Public Schools does not run a district-wide
school bus system except [[link removed]] for the
service it provides for students with disabilities. Instead, the city
issues public transit cards to all enrolled students via the Kids Ride
Free program [[link removed]],
providing up to 50,000
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student cards each year, according to the District Department of
Transportation. Consequently, students and their families are
repeatedly placed in close proximity to federal security deployments
during their commute to school.

Scott Goldstein, founder and executive director of EmpowerEd
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organization focused on teacher retention and education equity, tells
_The Progressive_ that the presence of ICE agents at key transit nodes
is already affecting student and teacher attendance. “In just the
first couple days of school, we’ve seen the attendance of immigrant
students decline,” he says. “That’s definitely a threat to their
education as long as federal agents are here.”

William Thomas, a professorial lecturer at American University’s
School of Education, says the shift from routine policing to a visible
military presence in the city is redefining how neighborhoods are
perceived. “The federalization of policing and the visible presence
of the National Guard signals to students and families, particularly
in Black and brown communities, that their neighborhoods are viewed as
war zones, rather than learning communities,” he says. In turn,
Thomas warns, “It risks normalizing military presence and undermines
the [relationship of] trust that educational institutions should have
with their communities.”

While the Department of Homeland Security has said
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that ICE agents do not raid schools, their visibility
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at metro stations and bus hubs effectively creates an atmosphere of
criminality in the commute for immigrant students. The result,
educators warn
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is not only that schools see fewer students attending class, but that
their essential foundation for learning is threatened when students
stop viewing schools as a safe place.

Past examples of large-scale policing during periods of civil unrest
highlight the impacts on student safety and learning. After the
acquittals in 1992 of police officers charged with beating Rodney King
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school attendance in the Los Angeles Unified School District plummeted
in the midst of widespread unrest and the deployment of National Guard
troops in the city. In some San Fernando Valley schools, attendance
dropped by nearly 50 percent
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as students and families weighed the risks of traveling through
neighborhoods where demonstrations and armed patrols were converging.

Research indicates that both militarized deployments and intensified
local policing can disrupt students’ sense of safety and their
willingness to attend school. In New York City, for example, a study
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published by the American Psychological Association found that
exposure to aggressive policing—not involving the National
Guard—predicted reduced test scores and increased absenteeism for
Black boys.

In California, a study done by Brown University shows
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immigration raids and other immigration enforcement activity often
trigger sharp increases in student absences, sometimes lasting days or
weeks after an incident. Goldstein says that D.C. schools are already
showing early signs of this pattern, with immigrant student attendance
declining
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in the first weeks of federal control in the city.

Police and military crackdowns on communities have long-term
implications for community health and wellbeing. “Families who
already navigate systemic inequities are now confronted with a
heightened sense of vulnerability and fear,” Thomas says. “The
displays of force echo this historical pattern of surveillance and
state-sanctioned violence.”

Beyond the educational impact, the militarization of D.C. also carries
a steep financial price. A Reuters review of National Guard deployment
figures estimated
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that the mobilization in the city cost roughly $14.5 million in the
first week of June, amounting to $2.6 million per day at peak military
presence. 

The psychological costs
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although harder to measure, are also mounting. Thomas cautions that
the visible presence of federal troops and ICE agents could
potentially strain
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relationships between schools and families, with some parents
beginning to see schools as places of surveillance rather than
support.

The federal intervention has also renewed attention to D.C.’s
unresolved quest for statehood
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members of Congress received
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a letter from DC Vote [[link removed]] urging action on the
issue, underscoring how federal control over the city continues to
spark national debate. “The only path to us truly being able to
determine our own destiny and policies is statehood,” Goldstein
says. Without full autonomy, the city remains subject to federal
decisions that can directly reshape the daily lives of students and
families.

Federal officials have not yet stationed agents on D.C. school
campuses, and ICE agents remain restricted from entering classrooms
without a judicial warrant. But students’ sense of safety is being
shaped in the spaces between home and school. Metro platforms, bus
shelters, and checkpoints, now hosting a visible federal presence, are
the same routes thousands of D.C. students take each day.

Public transit has long been part of the school day in a city where
every student is issued a free metro card. With the deployment of
federal troops, those commutes have become the front line of a broader
struggle over education, safety, and local democracy.

_Brianna Nargiso Newton is a Metro-Atlanta based educator, journalist,
and lover of all things education, politics, social justice, and
media. She is also a graduate of the Howard University School of
Communications._

_Since 1909, The Progressive has aimed to amplify voices of dissent
and those under-represented in the mainstream, with a goal of
championing grassroots progressive politics. Our bedrock values are
nonviolence and freedom of speech._

_Based in Madison, Wisconsin, we publish on national politics,
culture, and events including U.S. foreign policy; we also focus on
issues of particular importance to the heartland. Two flagship
projects of The Progressive include Public School Shakedown
[[link removed]], which covers efforts
to resist the privatization of public education, and The Progressive
Media Project [[link removed]], aiming to diversify our
nation’s op-ed pages. We are a 501(c)(3) nonprofit organization. _

* National Guard
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* ICE
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* Militarization
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* mass transit
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* public schools
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* DC statehood
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