This Is Not Normal: Dismantling Public Education Is a Trauma to Our System of Care

“Education is not a service we deliver—it’s a relationship we nurture. To fire those who uphold it is to sever care at the root.” - Mary Coughlin

The U.S. Supreme Court just gave the green light to the Trump administration to fire over 1,400 employees at the U.S. Department of Education.

This is not a budget fix.
It’s the quiet dismantling of care, justice, and public trust.

These are not just workers.
They are advocates for disabled students, defenders of civil rights, protectors of Title IX, and champions for children in poverty.

This is not a policy adjustment—it is a trauma.

A trauma to the people who served the public with care and conscience.
A trauma to the educational system, now left threadbare and silenced.
A trauma to the nation, signaling that truth, equity, and compassion are optional.

Education Is Care

In trauma-informed developmental care (TIDC), we understand that healing doesn’t only happen in hospitals—it happens wherever a child feels seen, safe, and supported.
And for millions of children, school is that space.

Education is not just about academics.
It’s about connection, regulation, growth, and dignity.
It is a foundational care environment, buffering adversity and nurturing resilience.

Firing those who protect it?
That is state-sanctioned disconnection—and disconnection is trauma.

Through the Lens of TIDC + BUFFER

These layoffs violate every Core Measure of TIDC:

• Healing Environment → A functioning school system is a healing system.

• Compassionate Relationships → Every layoff is a severed lifeline.

• Pain and Stress → These decisions inflict, rather than mitigate, harm.

• Activities of Daily Living → School is a daily rhythm of care, development, and belonging.

• Sleep and Rest → Children do not rest easy when their futures are under siege.

And BUFFER calls us into action:

• Belonging → These staff created access, equity, and inclusion.

• Understanding → This isn’t about efficiency. It’s about control.

• Forgiveness → Forgiveness requires truth, not silence.

• Frameworks → TIDC, BUFFER, and Caring Science are roadmaps for justice-centered care.

• Equanimity → Even amid outrage, we ground ourselves in truth and love.

• Respect → For educators. For students. For every thread in the fabric of care.

Caring Science Demands We Speak

Caring is not soft. It is revolutionary.
Dr. Jean Watson reminds us that care is both an ethical imperative and a political act.

This is a moment of moral injury, not just policy failure.
To look away is to collude.
To speak up is to reclaim care as sacred—and nonnegotiable.

What You Can Say

“This is not just a policy shift—it’s an attack on education as a public good.”

“We stand with the public servants who’ve been silenced and sacrificed in this political purge.”

“Authoritarian regimes don’t start with tanks—they start with the quiet dismantling of civil society.”

What You Can Do

• Speak up. Post, write, disrupt the narrative. Normalize nothing.

• Support educators. Join those resisting these unjust cuts.

• Connect the dots. This is not an isolated event. It’s a test run—on education, on democracy, and on care.

Final Reflection

When a nation lays off its educators, it’s not saving money—it’s surrendering its soul.
Education is care. Care is sacred. And care must never be expendable.

Let this be the moment we refuse to go numb.
Let this be the moment we buffer the blow with courage.
Let this be the moment we stand—with clarity, with conscience, and with care.

With fierce love,
Mary

P.S.: This isn’t just about education. It’s about every system that makes care possible. If they can erase 1,400 educators without consequence, they will come for others next.

Now is the time to speak—not because it’s safe, but because it’s sacred.
Let’s make noise. Let’s make meaning. Let’s make a movement.