***READ and WATCH: Senator Murray’s opening remarks***
***WATCH: Senator Murray, a former preschool teacher and school board member, hosts forum***
Washington, D.C. — Today, U.S. Senator Patty Murray (D-WA), a senior member and former chair of the Senate Committee on Health, Education, Labor, and Pensions (HELP) and Vice Chair of the Senate Appropriations Committee, hosted a forum on the Trump administration’s reckless dismantling of the Department of Education (ED) and the devastating consequences for students, families, educators, and schools. The forum featured testimony from Rhode Island’s Commissioner of Elementary and Secondary Education Angélica Infante-Green, President and CEO of The Education Trust Denise Forte, Director of Education Advocacy LLC and parent advocate Diane Willcutts, and Tasha Berkhalter, an Army veteran who was defrauded by ITT Tech.
“Trump is essentially bulldozing the Department of Education, regardless of who depends on it, regardless of who is still inside, and regardless of the loud outcry from parents, educators, and students about this,” said Senator Murray. “But we are not going to stop fighting—we are only going to get louder, because there is too much on the line to give up. And today, we’re holding this discussion because—despite the unprecedented assault Trump has led on the Department—Republicans in Congress have yet to hold a hearing to demand some accountability. Now, if Trump gets his way, when the Department of Education comes crashing down, the roof isn’t falling down on his head. Billionaires like Trump and Musk and McMahon are going to be just fine. It’s students of all ages who are feeling the pain of this.”
Senator Murray began her questioning by outlining the mission of the Department of Education: “The Department of Education was really created to fulfill a simple but very powerful promise that every student, regardless of their race, their income, their zip code, their disability, their language that they speak at home, deserves a high-quality public education in our country. And since its founding, the Department has worked to make that promise real by enforcing civil rights laws, by distributing critical resources like Title I and Pell Grants, collecting essential information and statistics, and helping our schools close persistent achievement gaps that exist in part because of significant differences in our states…for local funding. But today, as we know, the Department and the critical mission that exists, is really under unprecedented threat. President Trump has made it very clear he wants to abolish the department entirely. He’s taken critical steps to do that. He has shuttered regional offices. He’s halted investigations. He has cut off funding. He is leaving our students and our families and our schools in the lurch. So, Ms. Forte let me just ask you, what do you see as the most immediate and far-reaching consequence for students, and families, and school systems across the country?” Senator Murray asked Ms. Forte.
Ms. Forte replied, “The Department of Education has four very important roles. One, as you said, is to make sure we distribute funds to those communities and schools that need them the most. Those are supplemental funds, they are funds that states currently do not provide. Two, data, as I mentioned in my testimony, the National Center for Education Statistics, which oversees NAEP and other vital data sets. Three, student loans, over 1.6 trillion in loans, and another 210 billion in grants, that help more students get access to higher ed. And four, our Office of Civil Rights, making sure no student is denied the opportunity. Those four pillars are the Department of Education and they all—should they go down—are directly harmful to students and families across this country, to the competitive nature of this country, and I would say to the wellbeing and democracy of this country.”
“I couldn’t disagree. And really destroys the value that we’ve all held for lifetime, and want it there far into the future, that in this country, we’re pretty proud that we make sure that every child has an education—and that will be gone,” Senator Murray responded.
The Trump Administration has fired most of the staff at the National Center for Education Statistics (NCES) and terminated and reduced the contracts that supported its data collection efforts. Senator Murray asked Ms. Forte, “One of the vital roles of the Department of Education is collecting data through the statistical arm the National Center for Education Statistics, they’ve been collecting and reporting data since 1867, we have learned a lot from that. I think most Americans wouldn’t have any idea that NCES is responsible for anything, or that the Department of Education is going to eliminate that. Highlight for us what that will mean if we lost that.”
“The power of data is what this is all about. And when you render data useless, when you hide it from the scenes, that means we don’t know what’s working and what’s not working. We don’t know whether we’re making progress or falling back. And the National Center for Education Statistics and the experts it has long had in that office, have been critical for us to learn about whether our fourth graders are reading, whether our eighth graders can do math. In addition, the number of data collections at the Department of Education, the Civil Rights Data Collection, we have to make sure that that continues. That tells us whether there are issues around access to rigorous curriculum, or what school discipline looks like. We should not be undermining the data systems at the Department of Education. They are critical for our progress and really meaningful in terms of making sure our system is improving, which is bottom line for everyone here,” Ms. Forte said.
Senator Murray noted during her time in the Senate, whether in debating No Child Left Behind or drafting the Every Student Succeeds Act, there have been changes in education policy and education data was critical for informing members of Congress on writing legislation, and said, “At the basis of all of that, is knowing where our students are so we can fund them adequately and know where we need to focus.”
She turned her questioning to Commissioner Infante-Green, highlighting Rhode Island’s requirement to identify and support districts as they work to improve schools with the lowest performance in the state or in schools where certain students are underperforming. Secretary McMahon has already terminated funding for the Department’s comprehensive centers, which support state and local educational agencies, and ripped away other resources that support this important work. “Tell me how actions that have already been taken by the Trump administration have impacted school support and your ability to make sure all of our kids are learning?” asked Senator Murray.
Commissioner Infante-Green said, “We have an office actually that does this work that supports our lowest performing schools, because it is really incumbent on all of us to move the agenda forward. And what’s at stake at this moment, is having the personnel in my office, as well as in the school, to be able to do this work. We look at data, data is part and parcel of ESSA, it is really at the crux. And we can see where the disparities are, where the crux are, who we need to focus our energy on, what kind of resources we need. And it’s not a one size fits all. That’s why we work with the different communities. And all that is at stake. And we have seen, I will say, in the last five years, an immense amount of progress in places that have not seen progress in years. So, there are good things happening, and what we need to do is capitalize on that. But we can’t take away from that. I am very fearful and worried that we will slip back to a place, at least in Rhode Island, that we don’t want to be in. We know that the science of reading works. We’ve gotten every single teacher trained in Rhode Island. We made sure that that was part of how we used our funding so that every student has that opportunity. And right now, all that is at stake, and our lowest performing schools are the ones that we are most committed, we work with all schools, but we’re most committed to making sure that there is progress there.”
Since taking office, President Trump has taken sweeping steps to dismantle the Department of Education, seriously jeopardizing the resources and services students count on to get ahead. Upon taking office, he and Elon Musk swiftly shuttered the agency responsible for producing educational research to help educators know what is—and is not—working. Trump has now pushed out half the staff at the Department and announced illegal plans to move critical functions of the Department to other agencies without providing any detailed plan on how that reorganization would be accomplished. He also signed an executive order that seeks to eliminate the Department and move its functions to other agencies. Abolishing the Department is deeply unpopular with the public, and Trump’s decimation of it has created chaos and uncertainty for students, families, and every public school, college, and university across the country. Funds appropriated by Congress may not reach students and schools, students’ civil rights complaints may go ignored, student loan borrowers left without needed support and watchdogs to protect them from scams, and more. Trump has cancelled funding back from communities already counting on it—including, most recently, grants for schools to hire mental health professionals—and he has threatened to rip away funding unless schools teach what he wants them to.
Senator Murray continues to sound the alarm over Trump and Musk’s plans to dismantle the Department of Education. Murray held a roundtable in Washington state with education leaders, parents, and a laid off Department employee, about how funding cuts and mass layoffs are impacting schools and students across the state. Murray led a letter demanding detailed answers from the Department of Education about the mass firings and other detrimental actions which risk major reductions in support for and oversight of federal investments in our nation’s K-12 schools and institutions of higher education and threaten vital support for students with disabilities, access to Pell Grants and other financial aid, oversight of student loan servicers, scrutiny of for-profit colleges, and more. The letter follows an earlier March 6 letter Senator Murray sent alongside colleagues demanding answers about the chaotic, harmful actions taken by ED since January—which the Department has yet to respond to. During Secretary Linda McMahon’s confirmation hearing, Senator Murray pressed McMahon on whether she will ensure approved funding gets out to serve students as the law requires and whether she would protect students’ data from DOGE. She also asked McMahon to name a single requirement of ESSA—and McMahon couldn’t name any. Ahead of McMahon’s confirmation, Senator Murray spoke out on the Senate floor against her nomination.
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