[Congressional Record Volume 171, Number 43 (Thursday, March 6, 2025)]
[Senate]
[Pages S1588-S1589]
From the Congressional Record Online through the Government Publishing Office [www.gpo.gov]



                        Department of Education

  Mr. SCHUMER. Mr. President, well, last night, reports came out that 
President Trump is preparing to sign an Executive order to abolish--
end--the Department of Education as soon as today. If this report is 
true, this would be one of the most destructive and devastating steps 
Donald Trump has ever taken--and the main victims of this decision: 
American children.
  This right here is why every single Democrat said ``hell no'' to the 
nomination of Linda McMahon. This is why we did it. Linda McMahon is an 
Education Secretary who personifies nails on the chalkboard. I have 
never heard before of a Secretary who wanted a Cabinet job solely for 
the purpose of detonating the very Agency she seeks to lead. I have 
never heard of an Education Secretary who wants to give every teacher 
in America a rotten apple. But this is where we are.
  These are not just metaphors of the moment. They are the perils of 
the present. This would be horrible for our schools, our school 
leaders, our families, and the children Secretary McMahon is supposed 
to serve. The blast radius of this order will harm nearly every child, 
every teacher, every family, and every community in the country.
  Don't forget: Defunding education means property taxes will go up to 
make up the funding gap. Homeowners are about to get blindsided by the 
toxic brew of seeing their property taxes go up while seeing the 
quality of many schools that depend on funding go down.
  But nobody--nobody--will suffer more from Donald Trump's decision 
than our kids. Almost 90 percent of the students in America attend 
public schools, and they will suffer because of what Donald Trump is 
doing. Why?
  The Department of Education is a lifeline for public schools across 
the country. It is particularly strong in rural areas because there is 
not much choice. There is one school in the town.
  With Federal funding, many rural schools will vanish and some schools 
will crumble at the foundation, literally. Education is the best 
investment for turning a struggling community around. With good schools 
and without the funding to support these schools, our children will be 
hurt, our country will be worse, and the notion of the American dream 
will fall by the wayside.
  Rural schools will be particularly hard-hit because rural communities 
often only have one school in the area, and if that disappears, the 
communities will deteriorate. Kids with special education needs will be 
left out in

[[Page S1589]]

the cold. Public schoolteachers already worked to the bone will be 
thrown into chaos; class sizes will explode; job training programs will 
vanish; school districts will be at the mercy of State budgets that are 
already struggling to fund education; and the albatross of student debt 
will become insurmountable for tens of millions of Americans, many of 
whom come from working families.
  Every single one of us wants our schools to do better, our students 
to perform better, and eliminate wasteful spending. Education reform is 
necessary, but to make things better--to improve education--you do not 
use a chain saw. Using a chain saw will make things worse because it 
doesn't discriminate between the funds that are needed and the funds 
that may be necessary or should be redirected.
  Erasing the Department of Education in the blink of an eye is not 
what education reform looks like. Donald Trump should immediately 
reverse course before he causes irreparable harm to our students and 
our classrooms.
  Again, let me just repeat that you do not--you do not--hire a 
Secretary whose purpose--whose very purpose is detonating the very 
Agency she seeks to lead. That makes no sense.