Week to testify on the president s 2018 budget request for her department. The proposal would reduce funding for Public Schools while boosting federal support for private school vouchers. The hearing is two hours. Good to have you here, madam secretary. The forward begin to good to have you here, madam secretary. The forward begin to recognize for the purposes of an introduction. Thank you, mr. Chairman. I would like to introduce tommy diaz. [indiscernible] for the fifth annual foster youth shadow day. These are my 40th congressional district. His educational aspirations [indiscernible] i want to thank him for coming to d. C. To ensure the voices are heard [indiscernible] are involved in Child Welfare reform. Particularly efforts to support the wellbeing, talent and educational aspirations of every child involved in foster care. And tommy is the one with the blue around him. Why dont you stand up real quick . Yeah, stand up. [applause] there he is. Good morning, madam secretary. It is genuinely my pleasure to welcome you to the subcommittee on labor, health and Human Services and education. We are looking forward to testimony. You want the most important jobs in washington ensuring all young people have access to the education they need to be successful in coming decades. Frankly, i know it is a cause you have devoted life to quite selflessly. Many schools do fantastic jobs. Some need support and others are in need of significant improvement and reform. One fact remains, and we need to do the right thing for all selflessly. Americas children and your job is to ensure that happens. The budget blueprint that came out in march was further detailed yesterday and proposes dramatic shifts in the way your agency does business. It has a goal of Opening Doors for more educational choices to families, whether they be Public Schools, Charter Schools or private schools. I applaud your investment and highquality Charter Schools as a way to give options to many students who have had no options in the past. I support highquality education options for all students. I believe the neediest have the most to gain from an excellent education. I have long supported programs that help level the Playing Field for indian children, for disabled children firstgeneration college , students and poor children. I think that is a Common Objective on this committee. Today i will have some questions about how your School Choice proposals would work and how they would mesh with the reauthorization of the elementary and secondary education act that was completed over a year ago and nearly a decade in the making. I also appreciate your budget aims to protect the most vulnerable populations, students with disabilities, english light language learners and minority serving institutions. It is unfortunate the timing of the final consolidated appropriations bill and the production of the full budget coincided such that the final fiscal 2017 year budget figures were not known at the time your funding proposal decisions were finalized. I understand that makes apparent that sometimes cuts were made that were not intended to be cuts at all. In many cases it is obvious the policy of your administration was to maintain current funding for programs. But congress increased funding for a particular program sometimes after the facts, such that your proposal would appear to be a cut when in fact that was not the intention at all. We need to carefully explain ourselves when discussing proposed increases and decreases today. Your budget shifts the way Higher EducationStudent Financial assistance flows by proposing dramatic changes in scog and college workstudy programs. I look forward to learning more about how you believe these will increase Student Access to and completion of college programs. Your budget consolidates and proposes over 20 programs for elimination. Many of these are cited as being duplicate, ineffective or not a key federal mission. I look for to discussing those. Your budget proposes cuts which frankly i would advise you i have a different point of view on. But i will be interested in discussing this with you and learning your rationale. I also have questions about your proposed funding levels for individuals with disabilities, particularly in light of the recent Supreme Court decision which found schools must provide a meaningful education opportunity to all children with disabilities and not just the bare minimum level of services. Again i want to commend you for , making a special effort to protect these populations in your budget. Ultimately the subcommittee needs to know the specific details of how your cuts impact schools and students and how new , programs that would be limited. The budget provides some of the details. I know some are being developed, but we look forward to hearing what you are able to share with us today. As a reminder, our witnesses will abide by the fiveminute rule so everyone will have a chance to get their questions asked and answered. Obviously we have both the big chairman and the Ranking Member here, so i will move next to my Ranking Member but will be calling for them for whatever remarks they care to make as well. The gentlelady from connecticut. Thank you very much, mr. Chairman. I want to welcome the secretary. I will take one second if i will because like my colleague i too have a young woman who was shadowing me today from the city of new haven, connecticut. She is part of the program dealing with foster children and making it through the system which they both have. I want to welcome her. Thank you. [applause] rep. Delauro again, thank you for joining us today and i offer my congratulations to you. Let me launch right in. I believe the proposals contained in president trumps budget are alarming, and quite frankly this puts us on a path towards the privatization of Public Education. This budget intends to shift Public School funding and to advance an agenda that transfers taxpayer dollars out of local community schools. Education is the great equalizer in our country. At the signing ceremony for the original elementary and secondary education act, president Lyndon Johnson described education as the only valid passport out of poverty. Decades later he is still right. Than economic benefits are indisputable. Thats why the government must be able to provide every child with highquality Public Education. We need to focus on policies on strengthening Public Schools, reducing class sizes, supporting the teaching profession, providing more one on one attention, boosting student enrichment opportunities, supporting parental involvement, and making highquality preschool available to all. We have an achievement gap in this country. It is worse in high poverty areas, both urban and rural. Yet these of the very areas we would starve with this budget. I note there is a concerted effort to help students of color make gains since the department of education was created. Reading and math scores have improved. I wont go into it, but later in the hearing, to read you the success percentages of our students. At the same time economic high poverty districts receive less funding. Their students are more likely to be taught by novice teachers and less likely to take an ap course for which they have shown potential. 90 of our kids are in Public Schools. We need more resources to help them succeed. You cant do more with less. You do less with less. We certainly should not be siphoning off taxpayer dollars to pay for vouchers. Vouchers in my view will destabilize not only are schools but our communities. I will fight it every step against any attempt to take public money away from Public Schools. Cutting funding for critical programs to increase federal investments in Charter Schools also raises public accountability questions. I support Charter Schools, but i do not believe that they should supplant the Public Education system. Transferring limited resources from Public Schools to private schools is wrong. It creates a false choice for families. When congress completed the bipartisan reauthorization of the elementary and secondary education 2015, it soundly rejected efforts to decimate neighborhood schools. We expect the administration to implement the new law as written. The trump budget request includes 1. 4 billion in new funding to expand socalled choice. At the same time it puts 9. 2 billion in cuts on the table slashing or eliminating programs , that benefit kids in Public Schools to help pay for this illconceived proposal. Despite budget documents and rhetoric claiming it maintains funding for core formula Grant Programs, it cuts 578 million from title i and 114 million from idea. The budget eliminates 1. 2 billion for afterschool enrichment programs that helps keep nearly 2 million kids safe. 2 billion for Teacher Professional Development and classsize reduction, which would result in more than 7000 teachers losing their jobs. Literacy is a mark of a civilized society. We spend money to spread literacy internationally, yet we are eliminating 190 million from the largest Reading Program for lowincome children and youth, and 96 million from grants that help low skilled adults become literate. Despite promises of the administration to champion the american worker, the budget slashes funding by 15 for career and Technical Education programs that help prepare high school and Community College for that students Community College students for in demand jobs. The list goes on and on. The budget proposes deep cuts or limitations programs that help students access Higher Education. They have enjoyed bipartisan support on the subcommittee for many years. 15 cut to trio, which would end Academic Support Services for more than 130,000 college students. 50 cut to work study, which would punish house and the students who are working their way through college. The complete elimination of both the supplemental education opportunity grant that 1. 5 Million Students rely on. Grants that allow students to tailor programs to Student Needs and the strengthening Institutions Program that would help nearly 200 committee colleges and other institutions serve workingclass students. Serve workingclass students. The budget calls for an end to Public Service on forgiveness, for Police Officers teachers, nurses, and erase 4 billion from pell without helping that is taking steps to help students access the Economic Freedom it is her such as increasing the maximum pell award. The administration claims to support historically black colleges, but something ignores the fact these Budget Proposals would harm the very program that hbcus and their students rely on. I want to be clear. Fraud fraught and painful history of segregation in this country. Hbcus were not the product of School Choice. They were the product of the nations racist segregation. Aside from your budget, i have questions about how you plan to protect students from low quality, high debt for profit colleges. These companies prey on lowincome students, students of color, and the honorable men and women who serve in our military and sacrificed her life for this country. Forprofits represent only about one in 10 of the total Higher Education population, yet they represent more than one third of all federal student loan defaults. Calling into question the quality and value of education provided by this sector. Gainful employment regulations are critically important steps in reining in these abuses. Thats why im alarmed that one of your first actions as secretary was to delay the gainful employment rule. Failure to fully implement this regulation will not only hurt students, it would be expensive. The Congressional Budget Office estimated a 1. 3 billion cost over 10 years to taxpayers. President george h. W. Bush once said, think of every problem, every challenge we face. The solution to each starts with education. We owe it to the future of our society to make a commitment to all of our children. That they get the best start in life as possible. And that cannot happen if we make misguided cuts to education. I look forward to a robust discussion today and i thank you for being here. Thank you, mr. Chairman. I thank the gentlelady. We are privileged to have the estate was chairman of the full committee here today. Chairman, we would love to hear whatever remarks you would care to make. We look forward to your testimony and hearing your frank and candid views on any number of issues. Todays hearing is an important part of oversight duties of this committee. Now that we have formally received the administrations budget request the committee will undertake a thorough analysis of each and every budget line, question every witness, and men critical spending justifications and only then will make our own determinations on the best use of those tax dollars. We intend to put forward a complete set of bills that adequately Fund Important programs all working to reduce or eliminate waste and duplication. Ranking member delaura to i will work with chairman kole, Ranking Member delauro to complete the 2018 appropriations bills. Todays hearing is part of a process be followed to determine the best use of taxpayer dollars. After all, the power of the purse lies in this building. It is the constitutional duty of congress to make spending decisions on behalf of the people we represent at home. We owe it to young people to ensure they have access to the best education possible. Your department is vital in keeping that promise. Many programs administered by the department of education like pell grants and individuals with disabilities act idea ensure young people receive a quality education. I visited many wonderful schools in my district in new jersey, some of the best in the nation. I hear from students, teachers and parents on a range of issues. In middle schools and high schools i often hear about the benefits of a wellrounded education supported by every education supported by every Student Succeeds act, which allows students to pursue interests in the arts, music, and physical education, as well as Stem Education and english. In colleges and universities in my district many students remind me they would not have the opportunity to attend without programs like pell and federal work study. Im eager to hear your department would ensure for the student with proposed reductions, including the elimination of supplemental Educational Opportunity grants. Further these goals will ensure the next generation of teachers have access to quality Higher Education and the necessary tools in their careers. We need to work as we have in the past in a bipartisan way to ensure every child in america is welleducated. In conclusion, i welcome you. I look forward to working with you and this committee to make sure we have the best possible legislation possible. Thank you, mr. Chairman. Thank you, mr. Chairman. Again, were lucky to have the Ranking Member of the full committee. I want to thank chairman cole. It is good that my partner. Always good to have my friend, congresswoman delauro here. Thank you for holding this hearing and im pleased to welcome secretary devos before this subcommittee for the first time. Madam secretary, i will get right to it. I believe that your Budget Proposal would do great harm to students in every facet of education, from kindergarten through graduate school. And to those with student loan debt, years beyond. It is just another example of the broken promises and the trump budget that would harm hardworking americans and set us back in preparing a 21st century workforce. To me, this budget reflects the views that do not represent the majority of people in my district and people throughout the country. Your budget would cut 9. 2 billion from the department of education, a cut of 13. 6 , taking us back to 2002 levels. It would siphon money from Public Schools to pay for private school vouchers, eliminate more than 22 education investments, including teacher training, afterschool programs, leaving 1. 6 million children without a safe enrichment environment. I want to say that has always been one of my favorite programs because if you can convince people they are enriching their children, at least they are keeping them safe while their parents are both working. It would make Higher Education more expensive by cutting federal work study in half, eliminating perkins loans for needy students, preventing inflationary increase with pell grants, robbing surplus, and ending Public Service want forgiveness and more. In my district, rockland