-9999

Floor Speech

BREAK IN TRANSCRIPT

Mr. DURBIN. Mr. President, let me take you back to January of 1985.

Ronald Reagan had just begun his second term as President, and one of his policy priorities was to include the abolition of the Department of Education. What did it finally take to get him to back down from that commitment? Congress. Congress stood firm to protect this vital Agency in 1985.

In a letter to Senator Orrin Hatch, a Republican Senator from Utah, President Reagan said that, although he wanted to dismantle the Department, ``the proposal has received very little support in Congress,'' and because of the lack of support from Congress, which would be necessary, of course, to close down the Agency, President Reagan decided not to proceed with his plan.

Sound familiar?

That is because, currently, another Republican President, who ran on the slogan of ``making America great again,'' has suggested abolishing the Department of Education--only this time, he is not consulting with Congress; he is taking steps to do it. Last week, President Trump signed an Executive order to close down the Department of Education.

Demolishing the Federal Agency dedicated to the success of our next generation is shortsighted and deeply damaging to the future of this country. Families, schools, and young people in my State of Illinois and across the Nation depend on the Department of Education. In Illinois, the Department provides critical annual funding for K- through-12 schools to meet the needs of 4,000 schools and more than 2 million students. This includes $652 million in annual Federal funding for nearly 300,000 kids with disabilities.

I can remember a time when I went to school, and it was rare that you saw a disabled child in school. I don't know where they were--they were being hidden or something or held back--but they certainly weren't being given the opportunities they have today.

That also includes $778 million in annual funding for schools enrolling 1.3 million students from low-income backgrounds and so much more. These are kids who are attending schools which aren't in the best and wealthiest neighborhoods. They have got good families who care about their educations, and we give them a helping hand to make sure those kids have a fighting chance.

President Trump has repeatedly promised to ``send education back to the States,'' but State and local funds already account for the vast majority of K-through-12 education funding, and States and school districts decide what is taught in schools, not the Federal Government.

Cuts to Federal education programs and funds will hurt the Nation's students and the communities they live in. Shuttering the Department of Education threatens funding for low-income students and special education, and it makes uncertain the future of Federal student loans and Pell grants.

We all know what a Pell grant is. It is an opportunity for a child from a family of modest means to finally go to college. Funding degrees with these Pell grants opens the door for opportunity. It prepares these students to be part of the future workforce and the economy, and it allows America to continue to compete on the global stage. In Illinois, 226,000 students receive $1 billion in Pell grants to afford higher education--a program that has received bipartisan support.

So what does President Trump plan on doing with these student loans if he abolishes the Department of Education?

Well, they made a proposal. They want to shift the administration's loan program to the Small Business Administration--a separate Agency-- while, at the same time, the President and the DOGE folks have planned to fire 40 percent of the Federal employees at the Small Business Administration.

So follow the bouncing ball here. He wants to eliminate the Department of Education and call into question the administration of a program that literally millions of students rely on to go to school, and he is going to shift the responsibilities for administering that program to the Small Business Administration, which is not a large Agency. At the same time, he is going to cut the number of employees at the SBA by 40 percent.

Do you have any idea what is going to happen as a result of that? Most people know. It is going to be an administrative disaster.

Donald Trump is not trying to move education back to the States. In a real-life shell game, he is moving pieces around until we lose sight of the ball and, in the process, making drastic changes to our education system.

This administration will not stop in its relentless effort to weaken America's public schools. Before signing last week's Executive order, President Trump made significant staff cuts at the Department--already one of the smallest Agencies. He fired more than half the staff at the Department of Education.

Why does he need this money that he is going to bring back to the Treasury by firing these people? Because, of course, he needs to pay for tax cuts for wealthy people. We have seen it before. In President Trump's first administration, he had the distinction of having created more national debt in 4 years than had any previous President. He is out to set a new record this time. It is not that he is just for tax cuts; they have to be tax cuts that really favor the wealthiest taxpayers in America. That is just wrong.

He has fired employees at the Office of Federal Student Aid. He has slashed the staff at the Office for Civil Rights. This means students applying for financial aid will have to wait longer to learn whether they can afford to go to college. It means students defrauded by predatory for-profit colleges won't see the student loan relief they are entitled to.

What am I talking about here?

You can tell the story of for-profit colleges and universities with two numbers: 8 and 30. Eight percent of the graduates of high school in America end up in for-profit colleges and universities, but 30 percent of all the student loan defaults are these same students.

Why this difference, this disparity? They charge too much for tuition. They offer far less education than promised, and the students are often defrauded in the process.

Historically, they have turned to the Office for Civil Rights in the Department of Education to get forgiven some of the loans they have incurred because of the fraudulent conduct of these schools. Now, of course, in closing the Department of Education and closing the Office for Civil Rights, it denies them their opportunity and their day in court. It means weaker enforcement of Federal laws passed by Congress to protect students from marginalized backgrounds and students with disabilities, and it means the students and families with open cases in the Office for Civil Rights are unlikely to see any resolution.

Meanwhile, instead of investigating instances of genuine discrimination, the administration is laser-focused on targeting universities that do not align with its values, in hopes of suppressing free speech and banning transgender athletes from participating in women's sports.

How does closing the one Agency responsible for shaping our Nation's young people and for building the competitive workforce of tomorrow make America great?

It doesn't. Not only will closing down the Department of Education hurt millions of young people across the country and weaken our Nation's future; it is also illegal. The President does not have the power or the authority to unilaterally close these Agencies. That is being tested in court, and the President is not doing well in those tests.

I want to make sure the Department of Education is efficient, and I want to make sure it is responsive. But the notion that we are going to shift all of the student loans to the SBA is an example of someone who didn't think it through. With fewer employees at that Agency, they will be unable to do the job which they were assigned the responsibility of doing, and they will change the lives of a lot of American students in the process.

BREAK IN TRANSCRIPT

Source