During remarks on the Senate floor Tuesday, Sen. Dick Durbin (D-IL) spoke about the Trump Administration's push to abolish the Department of Education.
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NewsTranscript
00:00Mr. President, let me take you back to January of 1985.
00:05Ronald Reagan had just begun his second term as president,
00:09and one of his policy priorities
00:12was to include the abolition of the Department of Education.
00:18What did it finally take to get him to back down
00:22from that commitment?
00:24Congress.
00:26Congress stood firm to protect this vital agency in 1985.
00:30In a letter to Senator Orrin Hatch, a Republican senator
00:34from Utah, President Reagan said that although he
00:37wanted to dismantle the department,
00:39quote, the proposal has received very little support in Congress.
00:44And because of the lack of support
00:45from Congress, which would be necessary, of course,
00:48to close down the agency, President Reagan
00:51decided not to proceed with his plan.
00:54Sound familiar?
00:57That is because currently another Republican president
01:00who ran on the slogan of, quote, making America great again,
01:05has suggested abolishing the Department of Education.
01:09Only this time, he's not consulting with Congress.
01:13He's taking steps to do it.
01:16Last week, President Trump signed an executive order
01:19to close down the Department of Education.
01:22Demolishing the federal agency dedicated
01:25to the success of our next generation
01:28is short-sighted and deeply damaging
01:30to the future of this country.
01:32Families, schools, and young people
01:33in my state of Illinois and across the nation
01:36depend on the Department of Education.
01:40In Illinois, the department provides
01:42critical annual funding for K through 12 schools
01:45to meet the needs of 4,000 schools and more than 2
01:49million students.
01:51This includes $652 million in annual federal funding
01:55for nearly 300,000 kids with disabilities.
02:00Mr. President, I can remember a time when I went to school,
02:03and it was rare that you saw a disabled child in school.
02:06I don't know where they were.
02:08They were being hidden or something, held back.
02:11But they certainly weren't being given the opportunities
02:13they have today.
02:15It also includes $778 million in annual funding
02:19for schools, enrolling 1.3 million students
02:23from low-income backgrounds, and so much more.
02:26These are kids who are attending schools
02:28which aren't in the best and wealthiest neighborhoods.
02:32They've got good families who care about their education.
02:35And we give them a helping hand to make sure
02:37those kids have a fighting chance.
02:40President Trump has repeatedly promised to, quote,
02:42send education back to the states, unquote.
02:47But state and local funds already
02:48account for the vast majority of K-12 education funding.
02:53And states and school districts decide
02:55what is taught in schools, not the federal government.
03:00Cuts to federal education programs and funds
03:02will hurt the nation's students and the communities
03:05they live in.
03:06Shuttering Department of Education
03:08threatens funding for low-income students
03:10and special education.
03:13And it makes uncertain the future of federal student
03:17loans and Pell Grants.
03:20We all know what a Pell Grant is.
03:22It's an opportunity for a child from a family of modest means
03:25to finally go to college.
03:28Funding degrees with these Pell Grants
03:32opens a door for opportunity, prepares these students
03:36for to be part of the future workforce and the economy,
03:40and allows America to continue to compete on a global stage.
03:45In Illinois, 226,000 students receive $1 billion
03:49in Pell Grants to afford higher education, a program that
03:54has received bipartisan support.
03:56So what does President Trump plan
03:58on doing with these student loans
04:02if he abolishes the Department of Education?
04:05Well, they made a proposal.
04:07They want to shift the administration of this loan
04:09program to the Small Business Administration,
04:12a separate agency.
04:14Well, at the same time, the president and the DOJ folks
04:19have planned to fire 40% of the federal employees
04:23at the Small Business Administration.
04:26So follow the bouncing ball here.
04:28He wants to eliminate the Department of Education
04:31and call into question the administration of a program
04:34that literally millions of students
04:36rely on to go to school.
04:39And he's going to shift the responsibility
04:41for administering that program to the Small Business
04:44Administration, which is not a large agency.
04:47But at the same time, he's going to cut the number of employees
04:50at SBA by 40%.
04:53Have any idea what's going to happen as a result of that?
04:56Most people know it's going to be an administrative disaster.
05:00Donald Trump is not trying to move education back
05:02to the states.
05:04In a real-life shell game, he's moving pieces around
05:06until we lose sight of the ball, and in the process,
05:09making drastic changes to our education system.
05:16This administration will not stop in its relentless effort
05:18to weaken America's public schools.
05:21Before signing last week's executive order,
05:23President Trump made significant staff cuts at the department,
05:28already one of the smallest agencies.
05:30He fired more than half the staff
05:32at the Department of Education.
05:34Why does he need this money that he's
05:36going to bring back to the Treasury
05:38by firing these people?
05:40Because, of course, he needs to pay
05:42for tax cuts for wealthy people.
05:45We've seen it before.
05:46In President Trump's first administration,
05:49he has the distinction of having created
05:51more national debt in four years than any previous president.
05:56He's out to set a new record this time.
05:58It isn't that he's just for tax cuts.
06:01They have to be tax cuts that really favor the wealthiest
06:04taxpayers in America.
06:07That's just wrong.
06:08He fired employees at the Office of Federal Student Aid.
06:11He slashes staff at the Office for Civil Rights.
06:16This means students applying for financial aid
06:18will have to wait longer to learn whether they
06:21can afford to go to college.
06:23It means students defrauded by predatory for-profit colleges
06:27won't see the student loan relief they're entitled to.
06:30What am I talking about here?
06:32You can tell the story of for-profit colleges
06:34and universities with two numbers, 8 and 30.
06:398% of the graduates of high school in America
06:43end up in for-profit colleges and universities.
06:46But 30% of all the student loan defaults
06:49are these same students.
06:51Why this difference, this disparity?
06:55They charge too much for tuition.
06:57They offer far less education than they promise.
07:00And the kids are often, students are often
07:02defrauded in the process.
07:04Historically, they turned to the Office of Civil Rights
07:06and the Department of Education to get forgiven
07:10some of the loans that they've incurred
07:12because of the fraudulent conduct in these schools.
07:15Now, of course, closing the Department of Education
07:18and closing the Office of Civil Rights,
07:20it denies them their opportunity and their day in court.
07:23It means weaker enforcement of federal laws
07:26passed by Congress to protect students
07:28from marginalized backgrounds
07:30and students with disabilities.
07:32And it means that students and families
07:33with open cases in the Office of Civil Rights
07:36are unlikely to see any resolution.
07:39Meanwhile, instead of investigating instances
07:42of genuine discrimination, the administration
07:45is laser-focused on targeting universities
07:48that do not align with its values
07:50and hope to suppress free speech
07:52and ban transgender athletes
07:54from participating in women's sports.
07:57How does closing the one agency responsible
07:59for shaping our nation's young people,
08:01for building competitive workforce
08:03to tomorrow make America great?
08:05It doesn't.
08:06Not only will closing down the Department of Education
08:09hurt millions of young people across the country
08:11and weaken our nation's future, it is also illegal.
08:15The president does not have the power
08:17or the authority to unilaterally close these agencies.
08:20That's being tested in court
08:22and the president's not doing well on those tests.
08:25I want to make sure the Department of Education
08:27is efficient, I want to make sure that it's responsive,
08:30but the notion that we're going to shift
08:31all of the student loans to the SBA
08:34is an example of someone who didn't think it through.
08:37With fewer employees at that agency,
08:40they'll be unable to do the job which they were assigned
08:42a responsibility in doing and change the lives
08:45of a lot of American students in the process.
08:47I yield the floor, suggest the evidence of a quorum.