Budget Hearing - U.S. Department of Education
2025-05-21
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Source: Congress.gov
Participants
Transcript
Good morning, and Madam Secretary, welcome to the Subcommittee on Labor, Health, and Human Services and Education. We're honored to have you here today, and as you know, it's a busy day today on Capitol Hill, but we look very forward to your testimony and talking about the Department of Education, and as we hear more about the Department of Education's budget request for FY26. Secretary McMahon has wasted no time implementing President Trump's bold agenda. to restore education to the states, and I want to commend her for her efforts on hitting the ground running. First, I think we need to acknowledge the situation that the Trump administration had to face on day one, and that was plummeting test scores for K through 12 students and millions of borrowers who had never paid $1 on their student loans. This subcommittee examined a number of these problems earlier this year. Despite increasing federal spending on education, our students are not getting ahead academically. In fact, despite record spending, they have lost ground compared to other nations around the world. The latest national assessment of education progress scores shows that one-third of eighth graders nationwide are reading below the basic level. Student test scores overall are below the 2019 levels in evidence that students have not recovered from the pandemic despite $200 billion in federal COVID education spending. This was on top of annual federal spending for education, including almost $19 billion for Title I schools. Most alarming, the scores reveal a widening achievement gap. In reading, for example, lower-performing students in the fourth and the eighth grade scored lower than students back in 1992, more than 30 years ago.
Students deserve better. But increasing federal spending has not proven to be the solution. Just earlier this year, one expert told the subcommittee that education spending per pupil has more than tripled in real terms since Lyndon Johnson's War on Poverty began. back in 1965. More spending, yet worse results. Students need reading, writing, math, and critical thinking for everyday activities to succeed in their jobs and to make life's big decisions. Too many schools encouraged and facilitated by federal funding have let things like social justice advocacy and divisive issues crowd out the focus on teaching students and the core subjects. Thankfully, some states have pursued choice options for students whose traditional public schools have not served them well, including through charter schools. Department data shows that as of 2021, public charter schools enrollment had more than doubled from a decade before, growing by about 2 million students, while enrollment at traditional public schools declined by 4%. I look forward to hearing from you, Madam Secretary, about increased support for charter schools. However, this administration sees value in reassessing our approach so we can do better for all students around the country. It has also recognized a limited role for education. After all, only about one in ten education dollars come from the U.S. federal government. Education fundamentally remains within the purview of the states and the local communities. At the same time, I should note that we can still make priority key areas such as support for schools that are near federal military installations and under-resourced schools in rural areas, while limiting the overall federal role.
In higher education, there are bright spots. with bipartisan support, such as Pell Grants, which help lower-income students pay for college. The prior administration some way made a broken financial aid system worse, injecting more politics into the student loan program. The disastrous federal loan program is the direct results of the Partisan Affordable Care Act, which included a Washington takeover of student loans. As we all know, a Washington takeover of anything is rarely a good idea. The ACA converted the guaranteed loan program into a federally run program at the same time Members of Congress were told that it would save $60 billion over 10 years. However, in projections released last year, the CBO reported that it expects the government will lose 18 cents on every dollar it lands in 2025. Not a dollar of savings to be had. Thankfully, the Republican-led reconciliation efforts this year seeks to address some of these shortcomings. Against this backdrop, The prior administration put untold amounts of taxpayer resources into executive actions, waivers, and programs it created without congressional authority to try to cancel loans and make loan payments more generous. It told bars that forgiveness was always on the horizon while also going through the motions to restart repayment. The results? massive confusion for 43 million borrowers who were supposed to begin monthly payments after more than three years' pause, the confusion in the loan servicing system. Because of the mass confusion that was created under the previous administration, the department estimates nearly that one in four of these borrowers, more than 10 million people, are in default or late on their payments, putting them at risk of future default.
Just 38% or 16 million borrowers are in repayment on their current loans. Secretary McMahon, you have inherited an absolute mess in the department, but I hope you can correct the course. You have taken swift action to restore common sense to our college campuses. The department has made clear that all students should be able to access their campuses without fear of their safety. while still allowing peaceful exercise of free speech. Too many students in recent memory have been subjected to severe campus disruption, including at some of our nation's most elite universities.
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