On December 4, 2024, the AAUW Silicon Valley branch hosted a Zoom event “AAUW Priorities in Light of the Election Results” featuring Meghan Kissell, AAUW National Senior Director of Policy and Member Advocacy. Over 80 people tuned in, including branch public policy chairs and presidents from around California. Meghan focused on how the new administration will impact AAUW’s policy positions according to their public statements.
Meghan told the group that in planning for the aftereffects of the November election, the Policy Committee had frankly not given much attention to the possibility of a Republican trifecta, controlling the Presidency and both houses of Congress. “We had been in optimism mode, thinking of all the things we could accomplish toward AAUW’s mission of supporting social and racial justice for women and girls. We are now in defensive mode, with many areas of concern including conservation, the “culture wars” and LGBTQ issues. We must focus on our principles, and on those areas where we can have the most impact at the federal level.”
AAUW National will be thinking in two-year segments, hoping to influence the next Congressional elections. Meanwhile, there are other important dates before the Republican take-over on January 20th, 2025. On December 20, 2024, the Continuing Resolution funding government operations for Fiscal Year 2025 will lapse. On January 1, 2025, the resolution to suspend the statutory debt ceiling will expire. Both these issues will require some bipartisan action.
The AAUW Policy Committee is very concerned with the quality of the nominee for head of the Department of Education. Linda McMahon has no education experience beyond serving on a university board of trustees and the Connecticut State Board of Education; her experience has been as founder of WWE (a wrestling entertainment company) and as head of the Small Business Administration in Trump’s previous term in office. She has a limited view of student civil rights concerns.
AAUW’s key focus area will be education, particularly higher education. The first big fight will be McMahon’s stated desire to shift focus away from degree programs toward workforce development; this could impact Pell Grant funds with the likely effect of limiting upward mobility for the less privileged. The second big fight will be preserving gains won for women’s health and education under Title IX. The new administration has indicated a wish to restrict Title IX protections as much as possible, with changes in due process rules which appear to assume that the victim of a sexual assault is lying unless she can provide hard evidence otherwise. “Unfortunately,” said Meghan, “the Biden administration dragged their feet on codifying due process for Title IX violations; the second Trump administration is poised to move faster…. We expect three giant steps backward.”
“Some Republicans think they have a mandate,” said Meghan, “but this is not true. The narrow majority in the House leaves room for maneuver. We will see a lot of crazy, and we won’t have the backstop of the Democrat majority in the Senate. It will be a wild ride, but we must make sure that we don’t allow the normalization of unacceptable behaviors and ideas.”
In a Q&A session following her talk, Meghan dismissed talk of elimination of the Department of Education as not feasible, “but you can do a lot of damage by cutting staff and funding.”
An audience member asked about AAUW’s status under the recent bill HR 9495 which allows the Treasury to revoke the non-profit status of organizations that are deemed to support terrorism. Meghan agreed that this broadly drawn bill could be abused, but “we are not high on the list.”
She reminded the audience that AAUW can only take on a limited number of issues at the national level. These will include support for child care and parental leave so that women can achieve in higher education, countering attacks on diversity, and maintaining equity for women in education and employment. Support for the Paycheck Fairness Act and the Equal Rights Amendment will be ongoing.
Meghan noted that language is important in framing issues. “DEI incites a frenzy over something most people can’t even define. But if one talks about Equal Opportunity, most people are for it. We need to rebuild trust and communication and find common values to go forward. “
It will be up to local branches and individual members to support the AAUW mission with local school boards at the K-12 level. Individuals need to hold local school boards accountable for maintaining the separation of church and state, teaching fact-based history, proper management of charter schools, and other local issues. “Here is where local action has an impact!” said Meghan. “Find other local organizations with similar goals to partner with. Raise your voices!”
View a recording of the Zoom event on YouTube, linked below.