The NEA urges telling Congress to end abductions, protect Medicaid funding
Posted: June 20, 2025
Amid federal policies and actions aimed at threatening freedoms, undermining justice, and making critical funding cuts, the National Education Association (NEA) is calling on members and the greater community to push back.
The NEA, the Hawaiʻi State Teachers Association’s parent union with over 3 million members, launched a campaign to raise awareness about protecting families from the escalating abductions of immigrants around the country.
The video, set to the song America the Beautiful, shows how families are the heart of our country, but then in an abrupt shift, shows the impact of Immigration Custom Enforcement (ICE) abducting loved ones. The NEA’s goal is to build a surround-sound call for freedom, equality, and justice for all immigrants.
*Please note: the video may be sensitive for some viewers. Viewer discretion is advised.
The NEA partnered with The Four Freedoms Fund, a national grant funder whose mission is to strengthen the capacity of the immigrant justice movement, to produce the video.
NEA is asking members and community supporters to tell Congress to protect our freedoms, our families and our futures by ending illegal abductions of immigrants, including our students, in our community.
Learn about the devastating effects of proposed Medicaid cuts
Medicaid provides health coverage to 71 million low income and disabled people across the country, according to NPR. It’s funded by a combination of state and federal tax dollars, but the current budget, making its way through the U.S. Senate after passing in the House, is proposing cuts of nearly $800 billion in federal spending. Those reductions would have disastrous implications on not only those who use Medicaid, but even those who are covered by private, employer-provided healthcare.
In Hawaiʻi, 35% of students in the Hawaiʻi Department of Education rely on Medicaid, or CHIP (Children’s Health Insurance Program). In fact, among all 441,000 people in Hawaiʻi enrolled in Medicaid, 3 in 10 (33%) are children. Hawaʻi receives $2.2 billion in federal Medicaid funding, which accounts for 73% of total Medicaid spending in Hawaiʻi.
According to the NEA, Medicaid is the fourth-largest source of support for K-12 public schools, and now covers nearly half of our students and 1 in 10 education support professionals. Should the proposed cuts get approved, 16 million people would lose health coverage.
Cynthia Blankenship, NEA’s senior policy advisor for health policy and benefits, explains in a podcast what proposed Medicaid cuts mean, how they could impact students and schools, and what educators can do to help protect Medicaid at the state and national level.