Recently, I was at Finch Elementary School, a Title I school in Atlanta, where Love Beyond Walls is building Zion’s Closet—converting a classroom into a resource center in partnership with the school to provide essentials like uniforms, a washer and dryer, refrigeration and healthy foods, underg arments, and hygiene items to support students and families facing poverty or homelessness. These items aren’t luxuries; they meet the real, everyday needs of students who often come to school wearing clothes that don’t fit, shoes that are worn out, or lacking basic necessities that, as Dr. Spencer, the principal, said, ‘we take for granted.’ Being there reminded me that this support is not just crucial for students’ education but also for their dignity and focus.During my visit, an educator shared stories of students whose living circumstances range from stable housing to impoverished and transient conditions—situations that are no fault of their own—and emphasized the crucial role that stability, especially in education, plays in their lives. And while being in this setting, I was excited and grieved at the same time. I am excited that this will become another support resource for students but I also grieved at the potential impact of the recent executive order signed by the sitting president, which was crafted to dismantle the Department of Education as much as legally possible.While this policy decision will have significant ripple effects that we have yet to see in full, it made me think of a policy that was signed into law to protect the very students I was there to support—those who face homelessness and poverty. This executive order could very well weaken support under the McKinney-Vento Act, established in 1987, which ensures educational stability for unhoused students by providing transportation, access to school supplies, and the opportunity to remain in their school of origin. According to the National Center for Homeless Education, over 1.2 million students in the U.S. are currently identified as homeless. The McKinney-Vento Act has been pivotal in protecting the rights of these students, providing not only essential academic resources but also a stable educational environment.While the Trump administration suggests that this is a way to empower states to oversee their own public education, this decision might result in deeper disparities that disproportionately affect poorer states—which, in turn, impact students from vulnerable populations, including those supported by the McKinney-Vento Act who are unhoused or facing extreme poverty. Without federal oversight, the enforcement of educational equity and civil rights standards could diminish, further disadvantaging historically marginalized students and those from low-income families.In Georgia, this impact would be especially felt. Federal funding plays a major role in sustaining vital education programs. In the current fiscal year, the state received over $380 million through IDEA to support students with disabilities and an additional $3 million to assist unhoused students under the McKinney-Vento program. In metro Atlanta alone, over 10,000 unhoused students were enrolled in public schools during the 2022–2023 school year. If the Department of Education is dismantled, these critical resources could be lost—resources that directly support students who rely on stability, transportation, and access to essential educational services.However, it is important to note that the consequences of these federal cuts don’t stop at the student level. They extend deeply to the educators themselves. Many teachers, whose salaries are supplemented by federal funding, may find their positions in jeopardy. This doesn’t reflect a lack of commitment or ability on their part—it points to the threatened foundation of the Department of Education that has long held schools together that are located in economically challenged areas. The potential loss of passionate, experienced educators—or those just starting out—and the ripple effects of decreased educational support can lead to harmful consequences for students, especially those who already face significant barriers outside the classroom.Imagine a child sitting in a classroom, already burdened with worries about where they will sleep each night or when they’ll have their next meal. Emotional and social support are just as critical as academic instruction. For unhoused students, school is often the only consistent part of their day.Too often, our mental image of homelessness stops at what we see on sidewalks and under bridges. When conversations around homelessness surface, students are often left out of the frame. The dominant image tends to focus on adults experiencing visible chronic homelessness, while the quiet struggles of young people—who wake up in shelters with their families, cars, motels, or temporary housing and still show up to school—go largely unseen. And for many students who are unhoused, education is the one consistent place that offers them hope and a pathway out of generational poverty.What I saw in that school—the care, the creativity, the urgency—is exactly what’s at risk. For many students and educators, losing educational support and facing budget cuts means losing the only consistent place where students feel seen—and where educators have the opportunity to stand in solidarity with them.This policy decision presents a new challenge in education, but it also serves as an invitation for us all to deepen our empathy and commitment to unhoused students and the educators who work in schools with higher concentrations of families experiencing poverty—not just in Atlanta but across the nation. It’s a call to collective reflection and a commitment to stand in solidarity with our young scholars and the educators who guide them on their educational journeys.CitationsGeorgia Department of Education. “Grant Allocations.” Accessed March 2025. https://gadoe.org/grants-awards-diploma-seals/grant-allocations/ WABE. “How Closing the U.S. Education Department Will Impact Georgia.” March 25, 2025. https://www.wabe.org/how-closing-the-us-education-department-will-impact-georgia/ U.S. Department of Education. “Homeless Students Data Dashboard.” Accessed March 2025. https://eddataexpress.ed.gov/dashboard/homeless/2022-2023?s=783&sy=2955 The White House. “Executive Order on Improving Education Outcomes by Empowering Parents, States, and Communities.” March 2025. https://www.whitehouse.gov/presidential-actions/2025/03/improving-education-outcomes-by-empowering-parents-states-and-communities/ National Center for Homeless Education. Student Homelessness in America: School Years 2017–2018 to 2019–2020. https://nche.ed.gov/wp-content/uploads/2021/12/Student-Homelessness-in-America-2021.pdfAuthor BioDr. Terence Lester is a storyteller, public scholar, speaker, community activist, and author. He is the founder and executive director of Love Beyond Walls, a nonprofit organization dedicated to raising awareness about poverty and homelessness through community mobilization. He also serves as the director of public policy and social change and as a professor at Simmons College of Kentucky, an HBCU.Lester is the author of I See You, When We Stand, All God’s Children, the children’s book Zion Learns to See, and From Dropout to Doctorate: Breaking the Chains of Educational Injustice. He and his family live in Atlanta.The post How Department of Education Cuts Affect Unhoused Students and Educators appeared first on The Atlanta Voice. ...read more read less