This statement can be attributed to Cemeré James, interim executive director of the Center for Law and Social Policy (CLASP)
Washington, D.C., March 21, 2025 – Yesterday, President Trump signed an executive order to follow other recent administrative actions meant to decimate the Department of Education (ED) under the veil of “returning power to states.” His action will disrupt the ability of schools to provide the learning opportunities students need. States already hold the primary responsibility and authority for education, while the ED manages and distributes funds, collects essential data, conducts valuable research, and ensures equity in access to public education. Closing ED will disproportionately harm students of color and children with disabilities, instill fear in immigrant students, and reverse decades of progress in enhancing civil rights protections for all students. This order is also consistent with the administration’s stated goal to undo the progress made through Diversity, Equity, Inclusion, and Accessibility efforts that improve and expand educational opportunities.
Closing the Department of Education (ED) will negatively impact students of all races and economic backgrounds. The department plays a crucial role in supporting and holding schools accountable to ensure children with disabilities receive the services they need to succeed, and that young children have access to high-quality early learning. ED also ensures that students receive an education free from harassment and intimidation, and that they are prepared to attend college, universities, and other post-secondary institutions. The withdrawal of federal funds from institutions that do not align with the political values of the Trump Administration will reduce access to education. Ultimately, these actions will deny young children and students from marginalized communities the same educational opportunities, support services, and protections as their peers.
Contrary to language in the Executive Order that ED has failed children, teachers, and families, the department has long defended students’ civil rights to equal education and ensured educational accessibility for students in every state. Eliminating ED deprives immigrant students, students of color, and students with disabilities of federal oversight to shield them from openly discriminatory state governments. Trump’s actions only serve the purpose of resegregating American education along the lines of race and class.
Executive orders are not laws. Trump’s attempt to enact his education policy agenda outside of existing legal parameters is unconstitutional. The order explicitly acknowledges that ED can’t be closed without the approval of Congress, which is an open admission that the administration is undertaking a shameless effort to violate the separation of powers doctrine upon which our government was founded. CLASP stands ready to fight for the educational rights of all students.
We call on federal and state policymakers to oppose these reckless actions and take steps to slow down and mitigate the harm while also supporting children, families, and educators at risk. In addition, we call on our partners in the education and children’s advocacy spaces to join the effort to push back against these harmful attacks, which are an affront to our collective goals to build a more just and equitable country.
This statement can be attributed to Cemeré James, interim executive director of the Center for Law and Social Policy (CLASP)
Washington, D.C., March 14, 2025 – The full-year continuing resolution (CR) passed today by Congress undermines the security, stability, and well-being of millions of workers, immigrants, families, and children throughout the country. It provides no guardrails to stop the administration from using funds for whatever purposes President Trump and Elon Musk deem necessary to further their own political agenda. This CR does nothing to improve the lives of low-income families and children struggling across the country.
While the CR does avoid a government shutdown, it increases military spending by $6 billion, allocates an additional $485 million for Immigration and Customs Enforcement, and decreases nondefense spending by $13 billion. It also largely keeps spending levels the same as FY2024, at a time when inflation and costs are rising. This means that even though specific programs may not be targeted by line-item cuts, the current funding levels won’t go as far. For example, since federal housing vouchers won’t cover as many people, 32,000 people could face eviction.
Without safeguards specifying Congressional intent on how funds are spent, the administration could significantly cut or eliminate funding for programs that support housing assistance; public K-12 schools; Historically Black Colleges and Universities; maternal health; child care and early education; and postsecondary education. This undercuts Congress’s “power of the purse” and threatens its oversight authority over the Executive Branch.
This is one of the reasons that ultra-conservatives, who in the past have staunchly opposed stopgap funding measures like continuing resolutions, have been explicit about their support for this CR: it enables administration officials to continue dismantling and defunding government programs that they oppose.
The CR also includes a cruel provision that requires Washington, D.C. to cut more than $1 billion from its current budget. These are D.C. funds that come from locally paid taxes, not federal funds. Although the Senate voted on a standalone bill to restore funding back to D.C., until the House votes on the bill, D.C. could still face hiring freezes and furloughs throughout city agencies. This could result in unsafe streets, increased wait times for EMS calls, and a hiring freeze for teachers, among other devastating impacts to the city’s economy. We urge the House to pass the bill as soon as possible to restore D.C.’s budget.
CLASP remains committed to supporting families and communities and ensuring that they can meet their basic needs. This CR does not achieve that goal.
This statement can be attributed to Cemeré James, interim executive director of the Center for Law and Social Policy (CLASP)
Washington, DC, March 12, 2025—Yesterday, the Trump Administration slashed half of the U.S. Department of Education’s workforce when it laid off approximately 1,300 career staff and 600 probationary employees. A nation’s strength is built on the strength of its public education system, and these actions purposely weaken not only American education but America itself. Mass layoffs also undermine the economy and, if left unchecked, will lead to higher unemployment.
For 46 years, the Department of Education (ED) has helped advance and protect equitable educational opportunities for all students seeking to learn in the United States. The Trump Administration’s “final mission” for the department is to intentionally dismantle it, disregarding both its importance to the nation and the profound unpopularity of shuttering the ED. Allowing Elon Musk and the Department of Government Efficiency to operate the federal government like a private equity firm and unilaterally strip federal agencies of valuable people and resources will be ruinous to students, families, communities, and the economy.
Yesterday’s action is particularly concerning because of the impact on marginalized and vulnerable student populations. Public school systems that rely on federal spending will face increased difficulty in continuing to educate students. With a greatly reduced staff, the ED’s Office of Civil Rights cannot fulfill its obligation to vigilantly enforce federal civil rights laws in schools and among other recipients of ED funding. Researchers will struggle to analyze educational outcomes produced by various federal programs after the elimination of the National Center for Education Studies. Postsecondary students will be unable to begin or continue their educational pathways with the loss of staff capacity to manage financial aid awards. The harm of these cuts to students with disabilities, including the effects on early intervention programs for young children, remains unacknowledged by a Secretary of Education who struggles to remember what IDEA (the Individuals with Disabilities Education Act) stands for.
The administration has no intention of resolving these concerns or communicating how it will replace the ED’s essential services and programs. Since Inauguration Day the administration has wielded authority without regard to the democratic process, ignoring the laws or livelihoods they break.
CLASP stands ready to work with and on behalf of students, families, and communities to advance and protect the educational rights of all students. We call on federal and state policymakers to oppose these reckless actions and take steps to slow down and mitigate the harm while also supporting children, families, and educators at risk. In addition, we call on our partners in the education and children’s advocacy space to join the effort to push back against these harmful attacks, which are an affront to our collective goals to build a more just and equitable country.
By Max Kutner
(EXCERPT)
Chavez-DeRemer’s union backing could mean she takes a more pro-worker stance, said Lorena Roque, interim director of the education, labor and worker justice team at the Center for Law and Social Policy, or CLASP, which advocates for people with low incomes.
“She has to walk a very fine line,” Roque said. “She has Teamsters support, and I think they can easily take their support away from her if she starts really ramping up pro-business, anti-worker regulations.”
Washington, D.C., March 4, 2025—David Hansell, Chair of the CLASP Board of Trustees issued the following statement today:
The Board of Trustees, Staff, and Alumni of the Center for Law and Social Policy (CLASP) mourn the loss of Alan Houseman who passed away on February 26, 2025, after a brief illness.
Alan’s legacy at CLASP is unparalleled. He served as the organization’s executive director for a remarkable 32 years, joining in 1981 (only 12 years after the organization’s founding) and retiring in 2013. He built a strong, vital organization that transformed the lives of millions of people with low incomes.
“With Alan at the helm, CLASP was an acknowledged leader in the fight to combat poverty and injustice. Under his leadership, CLASP provided crucial guidance to executive branch and congressional staff, as well as to like-minded organizations, and helped develop the next generation of advocates.”
— Joe Onek, Former CLASP Executive Director & Board Chair; Current CLASP Trustee
During his tenure, Alan led CLASP’s efforts to strengthen and preserve the Legal Services Corporation, which funds local legal services offices across the country to ensure people with low incomes have access to quality representation. An outspoken advocate for legal aid as a tool for fighting poverty, he co-authored a definitive report: Securing Equal Justice for All: A Brief History of Civil Legal Assistance in the United States.
“Alan was a visionary leader and champion in the legal services community. He was one of the first presidents of the Legal Services Corporation, a nonprofit corporation created by Congress to assure people with low incomes have access to civil legal assistance in America. Through his work at CLASP, he provided counsel and guidance to legal services programs during pivotal times when Congressional restrictions sought to limit how legal services lawyers could represent their clients.”
— LaVeeda Morgan Battle, Former CLASP Board Chair; Current CLASP Trustee
He also set CLASP on its course as a leading advocate for families and children—fighting for improved child support systems, federal welfare reform, expanded child care and early education, and comprehensive job training and education programs.
While the political climate in Washington, D.C. grew more contentious over time, Alan established CLASP’s reputation as a no-nonsense, nonpartisan voice with only one bias: what’s best for people with low incomes. That approach led to landmark policy victories during his tenure in the movement for economic justice.
“Alan did so much to lay the foundation for what CLASP is today. He had an unstinting, inspiring belief in the power of public policy to advance equity for low-income people and infused CLASP with that commitment. His proud legacy endures.”
— David Dodson, Current CLASP Trustee
In the child policy sphere, Alan was instrumental in transforming the child support system from a focus on recovery of state welfare assistance to a focus on family support; establishing Early Head Start to bring vital Head Start services to infants and toddlers; launching the Child Care and Development Block Grant; and advocating for passage of the Fostering Connections and Increasing Adoptions Act.
“Alan was such a remarkable leader in so many ways. As a career-long legal aid lawyer in Chicago, I know that Alan’s crucial work to advise and support local programs and secure federal sources of funding was both crucial and sensitive to local concerns — he had been a state-based legal aid guy himself. And that contribution to the cause of equal justice was magnified many times over by the way he took CLASP into its national role in fighting poverty. He leaves a giant imprint for the good on many systems and millions of lives. We will miss our champion and good friend.”
— John Bouman, Current CLASP Trustee
In the broader realm of addressing poverty, Alan ensured that CLASP played a crucial role in the American Recovery and Reinvestment Act of 2009, which included the $5 billion TANF emergency fund to support the economic security of millions of people with low incomes. CLASP’s work on this emergency fund included extensive technical assistance to states so they could get assistance to the people who needed it most.
“Alan’s 30-plus-year tenure at CLASP shaped the extraordinary organizational strengths that I found when I succeeded him, that motivated me to come to CLASP, and that still make the organization indispensable today. These include the outstanding quality of the work; the commitment to both data and story-telling; the core underlying values of economic and racial justice; the combination of breadth across specific policy topics and depth within each; the understanding of how national policy connects to state and local policy and implementation and to the lives of individuals and families; and the modesty and lack of ego so characteristic of Alan and, because of him, of CLASP. To this day, that lack of ego is a defining feature people mention about CLASP – and one of the big reasons CLASP is so valued as a coalition partner. We’re in a moment when we need Alan’s generosity of spirit, wisdom, and commitment to unfailing core values more than ever. We will miss him, and I know I will try my best to live up to his memory.”
— Olivia Golden, CLASP Executive Director, 2013-2022
After stepping down from CLASP, Alan served as President of the Consortium for the National Equal Justice Library. His numerous awards and honors include the National Equal Justice Award, the Coalition on Human Needs Heroes Award, and the Oberlin College Distinguished Achievement Award.
In these tenuous times for our country, as we witness the likely shrinking or dismantling of programs that support economic security, Alan’s lifetime of service will inspire us and inform our strategy.
Alan’s family asked us to share the following information:
We want to thank everyone who has gotten in touch regarding Alan’s sudden passing. Your thoughts and well-wishes are deeply appreciated, and Alan would be very proud of the kind words we’ve heard from so many of you.
We aren’t conducting a public funeral but will let you know of any plans for a gathering or remembrance in the future.
If you wish to make a contribution in Alan’s name, please consider either a donation to CLASP (click here) or to the Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr. Endowed Internship Fund at Oberlin College (click here and select the Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr. Endowed Internship Fund, noting the gift is in memory of Alan Houseman.)
By Lulit Shewan
The Southern U.S. has historically had the largest number of Black people in the workforce in the country. This is a region where workplace organizing faces hostile laws and employer power is emboldened. States in the South have some of the lowest rates of union coverage in the country, which means that a sizeable number of Black workers aren’t able to exercise their ability to organize in reprisal of their working conditions.
This issue is both historical and intentional. Low union density in the South is rooted in the ruling class of such states seeking to maintain the longstanding super-exploitation of Black labor following the end of slavery. While chattel slavery bound the enslaved to their masters across all colonies, the South’s agriculture-based economy put a particular premium on free Black labor to build the nation, enforced through extreme violence. This history is inextricably linked to the current state of the South. The same attitudes that harmed both the enslaved and their descendants can be found today in starvation wages, limited economic mobility, poor working conditions, and constrained organizing abilities.
Even as union membership grew in the industrial North, ultimately sparking the Great Migration of Black Southerners in the early- to mid-20th century, Southern powers remained resistant to unionization. Today, only 6 percent of all workers in the region are unionized. That is just one legacy of the region’s resistance; another is legislation that staunchly deters organization and demeans collective bargaining efforts. Such efforts have largely been enforced by the reign of “right-to-work” laws.
All states in the South have right-to-work legislation in effect, meaning that they prohibit union security agreements, which ensure that workers who are not in the union will contribute to the costs of union representation. Proponents of right-to-work laws claim that they protect workers against being forced to join a union, but the largely unspoken and intended effect of such laws are to tilt the balance toward corporations and employers, further rigging the system at the expense of working families.
Arkansas and Florida were the first two states to enact right-to-work laws in the 1940s. Christian Americans, who led the right-to-work campaign in its birthplace of Arkansas, were brazenly racist in their propaganda, warning that if the right to work amendment failed, “white women and white men will be forced into organizations with black African apes… whom they will have to call ‘brother’ or lose their jobs.” It is not coincidental that right-to-work first took root in the Jim Crow South; these laws are just one part of a complex web of calculated efforts to maintain the poverty and exploitation of Black people. The subjugation of the working class and Black communities has always had a place in the region, and those who live at its nexus suffer the most.
While a majority of Americans support unionization, companies continue to push back against organized labor, driving a decline in overall union density and stagnating union growth in the South. The power of these companies is bolstered by anti-worker policymakers aiming to maintain the symbiotic relationship between government and wealth-hoarding corporation entities—a relationship that entirely diminishes the value and self-determination of the Black worker.
Given that the political and legal structures of the South have always been designed to prevent workers from expressing even the most basic forms of power, the collective power built by Black workers within a historically exploited region remains steadfast and inherently undeterred by oppressive administrations and policies. Volkswagen workers in Chattanooga, Tennessee made history in April 2024 when workers voted to unionize with the United Auto Workers (UAW) by a landslide, after tirelessly organizing in one of the states most hostile to unions. Leading up to the vote, anti-worker policymakers such as Governor Bill Lee vehemently spoke out against the UAW’s drive to organize Southern factory workers, in an attempt to dissuade workers from voting. The union won with 73 percent of the vote.
The service sector in the South comprises some of the most challenging workplaces to build labor power, in part due to difficult working conditions and high turnover. This is compounded by employer misinformation about unions and what union organization can offer workers, in support of right-to-work laws.
But the high concentration of Black workers in such industries continues to create a hotbed of collective anger and reprisal, given that this exploitation has history and that racial wage gaps continue to widen as wage inequality grows. In a 2022 study, the Economic Policy Institute found that Black workers have reaped even fewer gains from increased aggregate productivity than white workers. At the forefront of organizing this sector is the newly formed Union of Southern Service Workers (USSW), which found that Black workers make up 41 percent of the employees in South Carolina’s food or beverage, general merchandise, food services, and warehouse and storage jobs, but 27 percent of the state’s workforce. The steadfast organizing drive of the USSW is informed by endless stories of various forms of worker degradation and exploitation.
The Trump Administration wasted no time introducing a slew of anti-union sentiment and legislation. Congressman Joe Wilson (R-SC) reintroduced The National Right to Work Act and Secretary of Labor nominee Lori Chavez-DeRemer walked back support for the PRO Act, which would have overturned Republican-backed right-to-work laws. For many Black workers in the South, these efforts hardly present new threats.
“We are building a union despite the fact that the rules are rigged against us as Southern workers. We are building a union by any means necessary and building it in a way that makes sense for us,” says Eric Winston, service worker and USSW member. Dockworkers, food service employees, and entertainment workers are among the organized groups in the South who have organized strikes in the last year, many reaching tentative agreements. These workers are adapting their organizing to modern workplaces, as with the USSW’s solidarity-centered approach of cross-sector organizing at various locations in different industries.
Organized labor requires investment of time and faces incessant obstacles. Black workers have adopted these undertakings since the Jim Crow South and are at the forefront of the fight against misinformation. For them, it is not a choice, but a necessity. The labor renaissance isn’t over, and the organized U.S. South provides the blueprint for the future.
This statement can be attributed to Cemeré James, interim executive director of the Center for Law and Social Policy (CLASP)
Washington, D.C., February 26, 2025 – The hollowing out of the federal workforce by the Trump Administration through mass layoffs is an underhanded strategy to dismantle countless programs that support children, families, people with low incomes, communities of color, and other underserved populations. These actions will also deepen the immense harm created by the administration’s elimination of diversity, equity, inclusion, and accessibility programs—and make it more difficult for families to access the supports they need.
The cuts to jobs across federal agencies—from the Administration for Children and Families and the Department of Education to the Department of Justice and Department of Housing and Urban Development—are said to be done in the name of cost savings and efficiency. But these cuts are causing chaos, disruption, and inefficiencies. They are directly and immediately impacting the lives and families of the employees who have been laid off but also harming children and families across the country. We are only seeing the beginning of the layoffs’ consequences. These cuts are ultimately efforts to limit access to important programs like child care and housing that support people on a path to economic security.
CLASP is concerned that these federal layoffs will decimate the many programs that support people with low incomes and communities of color, ultimately causing negative effects on our nation’s overall economy. While we are already seeing some of the damage, it’s clear that the long-term consequences will be even more significant and could affect generations to come. That’s why we urge everyone who cares about the well-being of individuals and their families, as well as the nation’s economic health, to demand that members of Congress use their authority to stop the decimation of the programs they established and funded.
By Anna Kutz, Danielle Crenshaw
(EXCERPT)
“I feel that kind of the next large struggle for, especially the Black labor force in the country, is in these ongoing discussions around artificial intelligence and how it’ll impact the American workforce at large,” said Christian Collins, a policy analyst at The Center for Law and Social Policy.
By Anna Kutz, Danielle Crenshaw
(EXCERPT)
Two years ago, a policy analyst at the Center for Law and Social Policy, Christian Collins, wrote, “Black labor is the cornerstone of U.S. global hegemony.” This year, he told NewsNation that’s as true as ever.
The United States’ current prestige, says Collins, is thanks to the “uncompensated and undercompensated” labor of Black communities throughout the nation’s history.
“It’s pretty easy to grow economic profit, especially for high value crops like cotton, like tobacco, if you’re not paying the workers who are maintaining those crops,” Collins said.
By Kaelin Rapport
Last month, California relied on incarcerated firefighters to prevent and put out fires that ravaged vast swaths of Los Angeles County. The practice of using incarcerated individuals as forced labor has existed for decades and is part of an exploitative prison labor economy that balances state budgets at the cost of Black lives.
Carceral firefighting practices can be traced to slavery, as the use of Black labor was integral to fire management strategy, setting a violent precedent of placing the “inferior” on the frontlines of danger. California began using prisons as a source of enslaved labor for public works in the late 19th century when, as now, disproportionately warehoused Black people. Today, Black people account for 5 percent of the state population and yet comprise 28 percent of the state’s prison population.
That this exploitation persists is due in part to a loophole in the 13th Amendment, which abolished slavery “except as a punishment for crime” by removing the constitutional provision allowing jails and prisons to punish those who refuse to work. Last November, California voters failed to pass Proposition 6, which would have closed that loophole. The proposition’s failure was partially due to persistent claims that contemporary work programs like the Conservation (Fire) Camp are voluntary.
Today, approximately 70 percent of incarcerated individuals are assigned to work, and the overwhelming majority reported feeling forced into jobs like fighting fires. Incarcerated Black laborers are more likely to either receive no pay for their labor or work in positions with lower pay than their white counterparts. This placement can be arbitrary or used as a form of punishment. Incarcerated individuals who refuse face the threat of accruing sanctions, being deprived of the few opportunities available to see family and/or reducing their sentences.
Roughly 30 percent of the crews that combat California’s wildfires consist of incarcerated laborers, which amounts to over 1,000 incarcerated firefighters. Some are as young as 18 – the California Department of Corrections and Rehabilitation (CDCR) launched youth programs at the Growlersburg and Pinegrove Conservation Camps in 2023 and 2024.
Programs like the Conservation Camps have received praise for allowing states to save hundreds of millions of dollars by using prison labor to fight fires and provide training for post-incarceration employment. Incarcerated laborers produce over $2 billion in goods and $9 billion in services in the upkeep of carceral facilities. However, this arrangement obfuscates the social costs of mass incarceration while perpetuating racial inequities and damaging local economies.
State law allows the CDCR to pay half California’s minimum wage of $16/hour. For the highly dangerous and arduous work of clearing areas around wildfires to prevent their spread, incarcerated firefighters receive anywhere between $5.80 and $10.24 a day; an additional $1/hour when responding to emergencies; and two days off their sentence for each day spent fighting fires. These meager wages frequently go toward meeting basic hygienic needs, making phone calls, and buying additional food from the prison commissary.
Because of their criminalized status, incarcerated laborers are excluded from federal protections under the Fair Labor Standards Act, the National Labor Relations, and the Occupational Safety and Health Administration. They are also unable to unionize. It is also essential to keep in mind that, in addition to lacking adequate compensation, incarcerated laborers are often fighting wildfires without appropriate medical care or protective equipment.
As a result, the harm these laborers face from abysmal conditions inside prisons is mirrored in their life-saving work on the outside. Incarcerated firefighters are four times more likely to be physically injured on the job, eight times more likely to sustain an injury from smoke inhalation than professional firefighters, and largely unable to continue this work after being released. California law bars many with criminal convictions from receiving certification as emergency medical technicians (EMTs), a requirement to become a firefighter in the state.
California is among the 14 states maintaining fire camps that sacrifice incarcerated Black laborers for a public that has historically required their exclusion and exploitation. Being overpoliced, disparately incarcerated, and forced to work for minimal or no pay makes neither Black communities nor anyone else safer.
The following measures would make necessary strides in de-escalating the systemic violence of coercion Black incarcerated laborers suffer via California’s carceral system and serve as a model for other states to follow: