Education is of Great Importance to Congressional Black Caucus, Congress, and Constituents

Floor Speech

BREAK IN TRANSCRIPT

Mrs. HAYES. Mr. Speaker, the President of the United States signed an executive order to dismantle the Department of Education. It is very important for people to understand what calls for the closure of the Department of Education would mean to local communities.

The Department of Education is responsible for protecting the civil rights of students, supporting students from low-income backgrounds, developing and preparing educators, providing resources for English language learners, collecting statistics on enrollment, staffing, and crime in schools, and for the $1.6 trillion Federal student loan program.

Many parents are concerned about disruptions to programs and services that ensure that the 7.5 million children with disabilities and 49 million students enrolled in K-12 public education get the education they deserve.

President Donald Trump and his administration do not have the authority to dismantle the Department of Education. Only Congress has that authority. An agency created by Congress can only be dismantled by Congress. However, by firing 50 percent of Federal workers at the Department of Education and terminating funding for ongoing Federal education research, the Trump administration is making it difficult for the Department to accomplish its goals of ensuring equal access to education for all students.

The Department of Education does not influence public school curriculum, instruction, or instructional materials. Those decisions are already made at the local level by local boards of education.

I am trying to state the facts, to lay them out so that the people at home understand what is happening right now. This is not an emotional journey. This is not an effort to save a department that does not help people. It is, in fact, law.

The Department was created by Congress. There are 7.5 million students who receive special education services that the Department of Education ensures that they get. You heard Congresswoman McClellan say that I was a public schoolteacher for 15 years. I worked in a title I school district. I understand that it is rural communities, low-income communities, communities that don't have large tax bases that will be hurt the most. It is my community.

Education is the great equalizer. I don't understand how if we want to have conversations about making the Department more efficient or more effective that isn't happening here in Congress. That isn't happening in the committees of jurisdiction. I don't understand how my colleagues are giving away all of our congressional authority to make sure that the children in our communities are protected.

Ending funding or eliminating the Department does not end our legal obligation to provide services to kids who rely on public education. One of two things is going to happen in your communities: Either other services will be cut or local property taxes will be raised to compensate for the lack of Federal funding that communities will receive.

The thing is, here in Congress we go back and forth between majorities and minorities. We have policy debates and disputes, but our kids can't wait 4 years. They can't wait another congressional term. They can't wait until we figure it out because what we are actually doing today they needed us to do 20 years ago. There are so many funding gaps and so many services that students still don't receive.

I hear people talk over and over about the NAEP scores and how students are not at proficiency or where they need to be. I would encourage you to disaggregate those scores and look at the lack of funding over the years, look at the States that have disinvested over time in education. Look at the communities that don't value public education. Those are the communities that are dragging those scores down.

We have so much work to do here in the Congress. Our budgets are a statement of our values. In the same sentence or at the same press conference where the President talked about cuts to public education, he also talked about additional military grants to build aircraft. I don't understand how as a country we keep increasing military and defense funding and keep taking away from our children, whether it is education, food, or basic services that families need. I really don't understand it. Of all the things that we could be doing here, cuts to public education should not be one of them.

I will end by just saying, the President and the Secretary of Education keep promising that there is a plan. I haven't seen anything articulated. We don't know what happens next. We don't know how these services will be provided. He says that some things will go to HHS, and a small business will handle student loans.

For anyone who has actually worked in education, you know that by April, you are closing out your budgets. You are already planning for the next year, so we are already too late as far as giving information to schools as to what they do in September. They need to be ready to go on day one for the 49 million children who depend on public education.

Still there is no plan. We are weeks into this executive order, and no plan. Nothing from the Secretary of Education, nothing submitted to Congress, no concrete plan about who would take over IEPs, special education services, and the civil rights protections that are guaranteed by the Individuals with Disabilities Education Act. No plan. Just empty promises from an administration that has been dead set on cutting public education to the kids who need it most.

The Congressional Black Caucus and House Democratic Members are committed to continuing the work to make sure that these cuts do not go unchallenged because if they were as good as the President and his cohorts, Secretary McMahon and Elon Musk, say they are, then they would be here before Congress with a detailed plan to share with the American people of how this will work and what happens next.

Mr. Speaker, I can tell you, coming from a State like Connecticut where we value education, I want a high-quality education for every student. Even the kids in Louisiana with some of the lowest test scores in the Nation and even the kids in our rural communities, I want those kids to have a good, high-quality public education. I am going to fight just as hard for them as I will for the kids in my congressional district.

BREAK IN TRANSCRIPT

Source