Annie Christmas Miller held a sign on a white square sheet of paper while she sat with a group near the Capitol Reflecting Pool on Monday afternoon.
In black ink, it said, “No cuts to Dept. of Education,” and underneath a drawn black line, it’s signed by a “retired teacher.” For Miller, attending the Presidents’ Day protest criticizing changes to the federal workforce and Elon Musk’s Department of Government Efficiency (DOGE) was personal.
She spent 40 years in the classroom, including in the D.C. region, she said. She has three grandsons, and one of them is an honor roll student. Miller wants him to receive a federal Pell Grant, a type of financial aid for undergraduate students in need, “because I might not be able to help his mommy and daddy,” she told WTOP.
Miller was among those in Monday’s large crowd, which sought to fight back against what it called “executive overreach.”
President Donald Trump spoke about his vision to eliminate the Department of Education during his campaign, and last week, DOGE cut $900 million from a wing of the agency.
Miller wanted to bring awareness to the possible consequences of that.
“I am here because I love teaching,” Miller said. “That’s my calling.”
There should be a renewed emphasis on teaching civics, Miller said, because “these kids need the fundamentals of our democracy,” suggesting constitutional amendments should be prioritized, too.
“You can’t teach this, you can’t teach this,” Miller said. “The children don’t know how to cursive write. Everything is (on a) computer.”
Miller expressed similar frustration at cuts made to the U.S. Agency for International Development (USAID).
“I’m a world traveler,” Miller said. “I did my missionary work in Uganda, and I help those people. They are in need.”
Nearby, her friend Beatrice Evans held a sign that said “No billionaires White House.”
“Trump is signing too many orders to disrupt the government, the federal workers, education, health,” Evans said. “It’s so many issues out here that he’s putting into the hands of billionaires.”
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