Chairman Aguilar: The Republican War on Students will close neighborhood schools, increase class sizes and raise property taxes to finance a $5 trillion tax giveaway to billionaires
WASHINGTON, D.C. – RealEstateRama – House Democratic Caucus Chair Pete Aguilar and Vice Chair Ted Lieu were joined by Rep. Jahana Hayes, a former National Teacher of the Year, and Rep. Kristen McDonald Rivet, a former executive director of Michigan Head Start, to highlight the Republican War on Students that will eliminate the Department of Education to pay for tax giveaways to billionaires and corporations like Tesla that don’t pay any federal taxes.
CHAIRMAN AGUILAR: Good morning. The chaos and the corruption at the White House continues unabated. Elon Musk has illegal access to sensitive personal information of every taxpayer in America. He’s setting his sights on cutting Social Security benefits for American seniors who have earned their benefits over a lifetime of work, just so Tesla can continue to pay zero dollars in federal taxes. And now, Donald Trump has directed him to launch a Republican war on students by dismantling the Department of Education. I’m grateful to be joined by Representative Jahana Hayes, a former teacher, a former National Teacher of the Year, and Representative Kristen McDonald Rivet, former director of Michigan Head Start.
President Trump and Elon Musk want to cut public education for our children and our neighborhood schools to finance a $5 trillion tax giveaway to billionaires and wealthy corporations. By eliminating the Department of Education, Republicans are sending a clear message that they don’t care about our children reaching their full potential. The American people did not vote for their neighborhood schools to be closed or class sizes to be larger. They did not vote to cut special education. The Republican war on students won’t lower the cost of eggs or groceries, but it will raise property taxes as the cost of Trump’s education cuts will be forced onto parents and homeowners.
House Democrats believe that education is the key to unlocking the American Dream. Our focus is on securing the resources needed to improve public education outcomes, raising test scores and lowering dropout rates. If House Republicans won’t stand up for our kids and end their war on students, then they should not ask for our votes to pass a government funding bill. Now, turning it over to Vice Chair Ted Lieu.
VICE CHAIR LIEU: Thank you, Chairman Aguilar. The Trump Administration has engaged in a number of brazenly, undemocratic and illegal actions, and they are losing in court. 55 lawsuits have been filed, and judges appointed by Ronald Reagan, George Bush and Donald Trump himself, have issued injunctions or temporary restraining orders against the Administration’s actions. For example, a judge issued a nationwide injunction against the Birthright Citizenship Executive Order, which attempted to overturn the U.S. Constitution’s 14th Amendment right to birth right citizenship. A judge halted the attempted freeze of federal funding. A judge halted the attempted cuts to NIH that would have affected cancer research. A judge halted DOGE access to your private Social Security numbers, and on and on.
At the same time, none of these actions by the Trump Administration are lowering costs. My wife and I recently went to a grocery store. We went to get some eggs, and we could see the prices of these eggs had now jumped to about $8, but there are no eggs. The shelves are completely empty. Nothing the President is doing is trying to lower costs for the American people, and the American people are now seeing this. A recent poll showed that nearly half of the American people say their costs are actually increasing now. So, we’re asking the Republicans and Donald Trump to focus on lowering costs, which they are ignoring right now. It’s now my pleasure to yield to Congressman Johanna Hayes, who, in addition to being an amazing Member of Congress, as Chairman Aguilar had said, she was also National Teacher of The Year prior to coming to Congress.
REP. HAYES: Thank you, and thank you so much for being here. The Department of Education was created by an Act of Congress and can only be dissolved by an Act of Congress. This Administration knows that, and I suspect, based on what we’ve seen, that this chaos and confusion, this flooding zone, is going to reign down on the Department of Education, to try to convince the American people that we don’t need it, to strangle out funds meant to support public education and, ultimately, just turn off the lights.
It’s important to understand what it means by Republicans calling to end the Department of Education. The Department of Education does not handle curriculum, instruction or instructional materials. Those decisions are already made locally, by state and local boards of education, but what the Department of Education does handle is civil rights protections for all students. They handle support for low-income students through their Title 1 funding. They develop and prepare educators through Title 2 funding and professional development. They provide resources for English language learners, collect statistics on enrollment, staffing and crime in school, and the department is responsible for more than 1.6 trillion dollars in federal student aid.
49 million students attend public school in this country, and all of the services provided by the Department of Education are at risk. Of those, 7.5 million students receive special education or related services under the Individuals with Disabilities in Education Act. IDEA makes a free and appropriate public education available to all eligible students. That means the occupational therapist that helps a student just to hold a pencil—because in their brain, they have all the information, they just need to figure out a way to articulate that—is at risk.
And I think people need to understand that an IEP is a legal document. It is not solely an education document. Ending federal funding or eliminating the department does not end our legal obligation to provide these services to kids. So, one of two things will happen, either local communities will have to make hard choices about what other resources they have to cut to meet their legal obligation to educate these children, or their taxes will go up to replace the funding that the federal government is no longer sending.
Now, I’ve seen the NAEP scores. I’m open to having any conversation to improve education and get better results for students, but I think if we’re looking at those scores, we have to be honest: the numbers are brought down by red states who have failed to invest in education over decades. But any real solution that we’re talking about for improving educational outcomes for our students cannot be limited to funneling money to private voucher programs, which only about 1 million students take advantage of.
What about the other 48 million students? Any real solution has to include solving for the barriers that impede education, the things that cause children to show up not ready to learn. Things like housing insecurity; things like empty bellies; things like a lack of health care; no access to FMLA for their families so that their parents can’t stay home with them when they’re sick; Birth to Three initiatives; pre- and post-natal care; gun violence in schools. If you want to have a real conversation about educational outcomes, let’s do it. I’m here for it. But Elon Musk, Donald Trump and the elites in this country don’t need public schools. They don’t have to send their children to public schools. They can afford to send their children somewhere else. I’m standing up for all the students who don’t come from those kinds of families, for all the parents who can’t afford to make those choices, for all the teachers who greet those students and try their best to give them the type of education that they see in other communities—because they deserve it. So, I remain committed to maintaining the integrity of the Department of Education and fighting back against all of these cuts because this smash and grab tactics and attempts to rob the penny bank of America’s children and their future is not something that House Democrats are going to stand for. And with that, my colleague Kristen McDonald Rivet.
REP. MCDONALD RIVET: Thank you. Thank you so much. Good morning and thank you for joining us. And thank you to Congresswoman Hayes. Thank you to Chairman Aguilar and Vice Chair Lieu for highlighting this urgent issue.
So, education, specifically early childhood education, holds a really special place in my heart. First, I parented six kids. Second, I have a daughter who’s a special education teacher, particularly in the early years. But I started my career working in Head Start. I have seen firsthand the impact that early childhood education programs and special education programs play in the lives of children and families. I also served as the chief of staff at the State Department of Education in Michigan, and in the Michigan State Senate, served on the K–12 Appropriations Committee and the Education Policy Committee. So, I’ve spent a little time in education. I can tell you that we do need to improve our education in this country, and we’ve seen things that work. Things like decreasing class size, investing in new teachers, dramatic increases in math and reading programs and robust early childhood programs. These are the kinds of things that make our schools, our families and our kids stronger.
But eliminating the Department of Education would be disastrous for our kids. Special education classes would be gutted. Our most unserved communities unable to keep school doors open. Higher property taxes across the country as local districts are forced to pay for federally-mandated programming, and countless teachers losing their jobs due to a lack of funding. It’s simply unacceptable.
We can’t go back to a time where we ignore or leave behind our most vulnerable students. As Representative Hayes said, there are roughly 7.5 million students who benefit from the Department of Education’s special education programs, including students with learning disabilities, developmental delays, speech and language deficiencies and much more. If Mr. Musk gets his way, 15% of public school students in America will not receive the programming they need to reach their full potential, and every single classroom will be disrupted. So let me say that again. 7.5 million children. What’s more, state and local governments do not have the resources in place to administer these programs. I know what public school budgets look like. They do not work without federal support. If Mr. Musk slashes it, localities will be forced to cut services to kids. And let me be clear, raise your taxes to close the gaps.
To the families in my district working multiple jobs and still struggling to make it to the end of the work week, that’s more costly, not more efficient. Elon Musk’s plan to eliminate the Department of Education would devastate kids, schools and communities in my district and across the country at a time that we simply cannot afford it. Thanks again for joining us. With that, I will turn things back to Chairman Aguilar.
Video of the full press conference and Q&A can be viewed here.
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