Murray: “Families want help to get students’ math and reading scores up and ensure their kids can thrive—instead, Donald Trump is taking a wrecking ball to the Department of Education and robbing our students and teachers of the resources and support they need.”
ICYMI: Ahead of Confirmation Vote, Senator Murray Blasts Linda McMahon’s Nomination: “We Cannot Have a Secretary of Education Who Doesn’t Believe in Having a Secretary of Education”
Washington, D.C. — Today, U.S. Senator Patty Murray (D-WA), a senior member and former Chair of the Senate Health, Education, Labor and Pensions (HELP) Committee, issued the following statement on President Trump’s mass firings at the Department of Education.
“Families want help to get students’ math and reading scores up and ensure their kids can thrive—instead, Donald Trump is taking a wrecking ball to the Department of Education and robbing our students and teachers of the resources and support they need, so that Republicans can pay for more massive tax cuts for billionaires.
“Donald Trump and Linda McMahon know they can’t abolish the Department of Education on their own but they understand that if you gut it to its very core and fire all the people who run programs that help students, families, and teachers, you might end up with a similar, ruinous result.
“Ultimately, what they want to do is clear: fire the people who help our kids and gut funding for our students, teachers, and schools. This is about breaking government for working families—and enriching billionaires like themselves in the process.
“Students, families, and teachers in every part of the country will pay the price for Trump’s slash and burn campaign to destroy public education in America. When you rip tax dollars from public schools, it is working and middle class families who suffer. When you fire the people who hold predatory for-profit colleges accountable and who help students get financial aid, it is students who pay the price for years to come.
“Fewer teachers, less accountability, less resources for students, and more chaos—it’s the last thing students and schools need, but it’s exactly what Trump is delivering.”
Senator Murray has been calling out the Trump administration’s devastating plans to worsen public education in America. She’s pressed the Trump administration on its plans to shutter the Department, blasted its dismantling of its research arm, and forcefully opposed Linda McMahon’s nomination and plans to execute Trump’s disastrous agenda.
Senator Murray has championed students and families at every stage of her career—fighting to help ensure every child in America can get a high-quality public education. Among other things, Senator Murray negotiated the bipartisan Every Student Succeeds Act (ESSA), landmark legislation that she got signed into law, replacing the broken No Child Left Behind Act. As a longtime appropriator, she has successfully fought to boost funding to support students and invest in our nation’s K-12 schools, and she has secured significant increases to the Pell Grant so that it goes further for students pursuing a higher education. Senator Murray also successfully negotiated the FAFSA Simplification Act, bipartisan legislation to reform the financial aid application process, simplify the FAFSA form for students and parents, and significantly expand eligibility for federal aid.
In March 2020, Senator Murray introduced the Supporting Students in Response to Coronavirus Act to support students as COVID-19 spread, and she proceeded to work across the aisle to deliver resources to schools to support students in the CARES Act in March 2020 and in December 2020 through the Coronavirus Response and Relief Supplemental Appropriations Act (CRRSAA). In March 2021, Senator Murray helped secure critical resources for K-12 schools in the American Rescue Plan, which was passed without any Republican votes. She also worked to require a portion of the resources are specifically used to address learning loss—and has pushed to ensure the resources are being used effectively to help students get back on track. In the years since, Senator Murray has fought to renew federal investments in our schools, ensure resources are used effectively and consistent with federal laws, and successfully defeated House Republicans’ efforts to gut federal educational funding as Chair of the Senate Appropriations Committee in the 118th Congress.
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