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'It Brings Me No Pleasure To Point This Out...': John Kennedy
Forbes Breaking News
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5/14/2025
On the Senate floor, Sen. John Kennedy (R-LA) called to eliminate the Department of Education.
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News
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00:00
Thank you, Mr. President.
00:03
Mr. President, with me today is one of my colleagues, Mr. Conno Domain, from my office.
00:16
Mr. President, high school seniors throughout our country are looking forward to graduation,
00:24
which is going to happen here in the next few months, in some cases weeks.
00:34
The sad reality, though, is that some of these high school seniors won't be able to read.
00:42
They won't be able to read their diplomas.
00:44
In fact, students in several states have actually filed lawsuits against their schools
00:56
for failing to teach them basic skills like reading and math.
01:03
One student plaintiff actually alleged in his petition that he can't spell his name.
01:18
And he's a high school senior.
01:21
And it brings me no pleasure to point this out.
01:24
We all know we have a problem with elementary and secondary education in America.
01:30
But the truth is that some, not all, but some of our schools here in America have become failure factories.
01:39
And our kids are falling behind their global competitors in just about every category.
01:45
Not just reading, not just writing, not just math, also science.
01:51
We live in the freest, most prosperous country in all of human history.
02:00
And yet American kids rank 22nd, 22nd, not in all 195 countries in the world,
02:10
but 22nd among developed nations in terms of our education achievement.
02:20
It's embarrassing.
02:23
And the American people deserve better.
02:26
So do American kids.
02:30
In 1979, President Carter established the Department of Education.
02:39
As you know, Mr. President, it's a cabinet-level agency.
02:42
Its purpose was to improve education outcomes throughout the country.
02:49
I want to read you what the department's mission is supposed to be.
02:53
I'm quoting here.
02:55
The Department of Education is supposed to, quote,
02:59
promote student achievement and preparation for global competitiveness
03:07
by fostering educational excellence and ensuring equal access, end quote.
03:14
Pretty words.
03:17
Pretty words.
03:19
That's all they are.
03:22
Just empty, pretty words.
03:25
The results have been anything but excellent.
03:35
This chart represents reading skills among our kids in America.
03:41
Down here, mathematic skills.
03:45
This is when we started the Department of Education way back here, 1979.
03:51
This is where we are today.
03:57
The line, we're doing a little better in math,
04:00
but the line for reading is basically flat.
04:05
And the line for mathematics is not exactly steep.
04:09
The truth is that our scores, both for reading and math,
04:17
have not improved appreciably in decades.
04:21
And any progress that we have seen from the Department of Education's long tenure,
04:28
which is very little, you can see the numbers,
04:32
they speak for themselves,
04:33
they disappeared during the pandemic
04:37
when people in power decided
04:42
to close down our schools.
04:49
Funding for the Department of Education
04:51
has far outpaced spending in the rest of federal government.
04:55
If you compare spending just for the Department of Education
04:58
to spending in the rest of the federal government,
05:02
the difference is dramatic.
05:05
Since 1980, the Department of Education spending
05:08
has increased by 370%.
05:12
370%.
05:16
All other forms of spending have increased on average about 195%.
05:21
Yet the scores remain stagnant.
05:27
Both for reading and for math.
05:31
Now, looking at these numbers,
05:33
I think it's pretty clear
05:35
why President Trump
05:36
is calling for us
05:38
to shut down
05:40
the Department of Education altogether.
05:42
He wants to, as we know,
05:44
he wants to return education
05:45
to our states.
05:47
Louisiana provides a perfect example
05:53
of why that's a good idea.
05:57
I want to be clear.
05:59
I'm not saying that
06:00
Louisiana public education
06:02
and secondary education
06:03
is perfect.
06:07
We're not well.
06:10
But we are doing much better.
06:14
Over the past few years,
06:16
Louisiana has actually outpaced
06:18
the rest of the country
06:19
in several measures
06:21
of academic improvement
06:23
and academic achievement
06:25
in our K-12 schools.
06:27
According to the nation's report card,
06:30
that's what everybody looks to,
06:32
the nation's report card
06:33
is put out every year
06:35
by the Department of Education
06:36
grading our states
06:39
on progress in elementary
06:40
and secondary education.
06:42
It might be the only decent thing
06:43
the Department of Education does.
06:46
I forget the formal name of it,
06:49
but we all refer to it
06:50
as the nation's report card.
06:54
And according to that report card,
06:56
Louisiana led the country
06:59
in reading growth in 2024.
07:03
And I want to show you that here
07:06
in a second in the chart,
07:07
but first I want to go back.
07:09
I should have emphasized this.
07:13
Once again,
07:14
these are the average reading
07:16
and math scores
07:17
for all the kids in America
07:19
since the Department of Education
07:21
was established.
07:24
Flat line,
07:26
mostly flat line,
07:27
but look what happened here.
07:30
A dramatic drop.
07:32
dramatic drop
07:36
in both math
07:37
and education scores.
07:40
That's the pandemic.
07:44
That's what happened
07:45
when people in power
07:48
decided to shut down
07:50
our schools.
07:51
Now,
07:53
it was more than one person.
07:56
I understand that.
07:58
But,
08:02
it was,
08:02
for all the people
08:03
who made this decision,
08:07
they should hide their heads
08:09
in a bag.
08:11
I mean,
08:12
look what happened.
08:13
We shut down our schools.
08:15
We had the largest
08:16
learning loss
08:18
in modern history.
08:21
That's just a fact.
08:24
Now,
08:25
some people are going
08:26
to disagree with me.
08:29
And I'm not saying
08:30
that if they disagree with me,
08:33
they're dumb.
08:34
But I'm saying
08:35
if they disagree with me,
08:38
they better hope
08:39
the dumbest person
08:40
in the world
08:40
doesn't die
08:41
because they're going
08:43
to take their place.
08:45
But I want to come back.
08:47
Let me go to Louisiana
08:48
for a second.
08:49
We didn't shut down
08:50
our schools
08:50
but for a short period of time.
08:54
And you can see
08:54
the results in this chart.
08:56
Between 2019
08:57
and 2024,
09:00
Louisiana
09:01
fourth graders
09:02
went from ranking
09:03
dead last
09:05
in the country
09:05
for reading proficiency.
09:08
Here we are.
09:10
48.
09:11
To ranking 16th.
09:14
I'm very proud of that.
09:17
Math scores
09:18
also steadily increased.
09:20
Louisiana climbed
09:20
from being ranked
09:21
50th
09:23
to 38.
09:25
We went from
09:26
50th to 38
09:28
and 48
09:29
to 16th best
09:31
in our country.
09:34
Louisiana made
09:35
this growth
09:36
happen
09:36
during the pandemic
09:38
and afterwards.
09:40
That was
09:41
dependent
09:42
was probably
09:42
one of the most
09:43
challenging
09:44
educational periods
09:46
in our country's history.
09:48
Parents remember it.
09:49
I remember it.
09:50
Even if your kids
09:51
are grown,
09:52
you remember it.
09:53
It was difficult
09:54
for kids
09:56
to try to learn
09:56
from home.
09:58
It was a disaster.
10:01
Shutting down
10:02
these schools
10:02
was a disaster
10:04
and American kids
10:05
suffered
10:05
because of it.
10:07
According to the
10:08
Education Recovery
10:09
Scorecard,
10:10
which measures
10:11
how much
10:12
of the loss
10:15
we were able
10:16
to gain back,
10:18
American students,
10:20
I'm talking about
10:21
all kids
10:21
throughout America,
10:22
are still
10:23
one half
10:24
of a grade
10:25
behind
10:26
where students
10:27
were
10:27
when they were
10:29
tested
10:29
before the pandemic.
10:30
On average,
10:32
we lost
10:32
a half a grade.
10:34
In many states,
10:36
the academic loss
10:37
was a full year.
10:38
And that means
10:39
that fourth graders
10:40
today
10:41
can only read
10:42
as well as
10:43
third graders
10:44
prior to the pandemic.
10:46
This is an entire
10:47
generation of kids
10:48
who fell behind
10:51
because our people
10:53
in power
10:53
decided to shut
10:54
down our schools.
10:56
And many
10:56
of our states,
10:58
despite the billions
10:59
of dollars
10:59
that we appropriated
11:01
to help them,
11:02
have failed
11:02
to catch up.
11:06
I'm going to
11:07
say it again.
11:07
The people
11:08
who insisted
11:08
on shutting
11:10
down our schools
11:11
during the pandemic
11:13
are responsible
11:15
for the largest
11:16
learning loss
11:17
in modern history.
11:20
It was dumb,
11:22
dumb,
11:22
dumb.
11:24
And again,
11:25
I'm not saying
11:27
the people
11:27
that made that decision
11:28
to shut down,
11:29
the schools
11:30
in America
11:31
are the dumbest
11:32
people in the world,
11:33
but they better hope
11:34
the dumbest people
11:35
in the world
11:35
don't die.
11:40
Louisiana,
11:41
though,
11:41
managed to thrive
11:43
during this period
11:44
and afterwards.
11:45
Why is that?
11:47
Because we looked
11:48
around
11:48
at what our friends
11:49
and our neighbors
11:50
were doing in America
11:51
and across the world.
11:53
and we didn't
11:55
go with the flow.
11:58
Only dead fish
11:59
go with the flow.
12:00
We didn't go
12:01
with the flow.
12:03
We said,
12:04
let's look at
12:04
what other countries
12:05
are doing
12:06
and working
12:06
and what other states
12:08
are doing
12:08
and working
12:10
and that's what
12:10
we did.
12:11
First,
12:12
we started giving
12:14
our teachers
12:15
the tools
12:16
they needed
12:16
to teach
12:17
and that's important.
12:20
In 2021,
12:21
I remember it
12:22
like it was yesterday,
12:23
our state legislature
12:24
passed a law
12:25
mandating that all
12:27
K-3 teachers
12:29
receive advanced
12:30
training
12:31
in the very best
12:32
methods
12:33
of teaching reading.
12:35
Reading is fundamental.
12:36
If you can't read,
12:40
nothing else matters
12:42
in terms of
12:43
educational progress.
12:45
So we sought out
12:46
the best methods
12:48
for teaching kids
12:50
from kindergarten
12:50
to the third grade,
12:52
the best methods
12:53
to teach reading.
12:55
We found them
12:56
and we educated
12:58
our teachers
12:58
in those methods
12:59
and it worked.
13:03
We tried to make it
13:05
the case
13:06
so that no kid
13:07
makes it to
13:08
graduation day
13:09
in Louisiana
13:10
without being able
13:11
to read.
13:13
In fact,
13:14
we passed another law
13:15
a couple of years ago.
13:17
I worked very hard
13:18
on this.
13:19
It says,
13:20
if you're in the third grade,
13:22
at the end of the third grade,
13:23
you're going to be tested
13:24
for reading
13:25
and if you can't read
13:28
at a third grade level,
13:29
we're going to retest you again
13:30
and if you can't read
13:33
at a third grade level
13:34
at the end of the third grade,
13:36
we're going to test you
13:37
one more time
13:37
and if you still fail,
13:40
you're not going
13:41
to the fourth grade.
13:43
You're going to stay
13:44
in the third grade
13:45
until you learn
13:46
how to read.
13:47
You might be 16 years old
13:49
in the third grade
13:50
but by God,
13:52
you're not going
13:53
to the fourth grade
13:53
until you can learn
13:54
how to read.
13:56
Now,
13:56
we don't just leave
13:57
the kids on their own.
13:58
If they can't read
14:00
at the end of the third grade
14:01
after being tested
14:02
a couple of times,
14:03
we give them
14:04
what we call
14:05
high dosage tutoring.
14:07
We tutor them
14:08
and tutor them
14:09
and tutor them
14:10
until they can read
14:12
and then they can move on
14:14
because you know
14:16
when kids drop out of school,
14:20
kids don't drop out of school
14:21
in the 10th or the 11th
14:23
and the 12th grade.
14:24
They drop out of school
14:25
in the second grade,
14:26
in the third grade
14:27
when they can't learn
14:29
how to read
14:30
and nobody cares.
14:32
They're just socially promoted.
14:34
We stopped doing that
14:35
in Louisiana.
14:39
We also started
14:40
giving parents a choice
14:42
in public education.
14:46
You know,
14:46
competition makes us better.
14:48
Makes you better.
14:49
Makes me better.
14:50
Competition makes
14:51
all of us better.
14:54
Most parents,
14:55
not all,
14:56
most parents
14:57
are far more invested
14:59
in their kids'
15:01
academic success
15:02
than any teacher.
15:04
I don't care
15:04
how well-meaning
15:05
the teacher is,
15:06
than any teacher,
15:07
any school administrator,
15:09
or any federal bureaucrat.
15:11
And most parents,
15:13
not all unfortunately,
15:15
but most parents
15:16
in America
15:17
do not want
15:19
their kids
15:19
to be stuck
15:20
in a school
15:21
where violence
15:23
is common
15:23
and learning
15:24
is rare.
15:25
They don't.
15:28
Now,
15:28
several states
15:29
throughout the country,
15:30
I'm going to mention
15:31
four in particular,
15:32
but they're not
15:32
the only ones.
15:33
I'm going to mention
15:33
Florida,
15:35
Iowa,
15:36
North Dakota,
15:36
and Utah.
15:37
Congratulations
15:38
to them all.
15:39
they have implemented
15:41
successfully
15:42
school choice
15:43
programs.
15:46
Utah's may be
15:46
the best,
15:47
Mr. President.
15:49
This gives
15:50
parents the ability,
15:52
just what it says,
15:53
it gives parents
15:53
a choice.
15:55
They can send
15:55
their kid
15:56
to a public school.
15:58
They can send
15:59
their kid
15:59
to a private school.
16:00
They can send
16:01
their child
16:02
to a charter school.
16:03
Charter schools
16:04
are tuition-free.
16:06
Charter schools
16:06
are public schools.
16:07
They're tuition-free,
16:09
but they're not run
16:10
by the education
16:12
bureaucracy.
16:14
They're almost
16:15
always run
16:15
by parents
16:16
and caring adults.
16:19
They don't have
16:20
to follow
16:20
all the red tape
16:21
in their local
16:22
school district.
16:24
They can experiment.
16:26
They're independent.
16:28
They're free.
16:30
And they work.
16:34
Every state,
16:35
every one of these
16:35
states that I mention,
16:36
and their programs
16:37
are different.
16:39
But each state
16:40
that I mention,
16:41
and I want to mention
16:42
them again
16:42
because they deserve praise,
16:44
Utah, North Dakota,
16:46
Iowa, and Florida,
16:48
they all have
16:49
a few things
16:50
in common.
16:52
They all allow
16:53
parents to decide
16:54
which school
16:55
will get their kid's
16:56
share of state
16:57
and federal tax dollars.
16:59
as you know,
17:01
Mr. President,
17:03
we fund our public
17:05
schools
17:05
through three sources
17:07
of revenue.
17:09
The largest
17:09
is usually
17:10
local government.
17:11
In my state,
17:12
about half of the money
17:13
comes from local government.
17:16
About 40%
17:17
comes from the state government,
17:19
and about 10%
17:19
comes from the federal government.
17:21
So it's mostly
17:22
local money,
17:23
but it's also
17:24
state money
17:24
to a large extent,
17:26
and some federal money.
17:27
But these are all
17:28
tax dollars.
17:32
In these states
17:33
that I just described,
17:34
if parents
17:35
are happy
17:36
with the current
17:37
public school
17:38
that their child
17:38
is enrolled in,
17:39
they can tell the state,
17:41
okay,
17:41
spend that money
17:42
per child
17:43
that I just described
17:44
in my child's school.
17:46
I'm happy
17:47
with my current school.
17:48
But if the parents
17:49
aren't happy,
17:51
they can seek
17:52
another school
17:53
that's a better fit
17:54
and move that money.
17:57
They can choose
17:58
to take their child's
17:59
funding
18:00
to a different school
18:01
to give that kid
18:03
a better outcome.
18:04
This gives parents
18:05
a choice.
18:07
But it also,
18:08
you know what else
18:08
it does?
18:10
It gets some
18:11
of our schools
18:11
off their ice-cold
18:13
lazy butts.
18:15
It makes schools
18:17
compete.
18:19
And competition
18:20
makes all of us
18:22
better.
18:23
There have been
18:23
a number of studies
18:24
of school choice states
18:27
and almost all of them
18:28
have found
18:29
that these programs,
18:30
this program of choice,
18:32
you get to choose
18:33
which public school
18:34
you want your child
18:36
to go to
18:36
or you can send
18:37
your child
18:38
to a private school.
18:40
This choice
18:42
results in
18:43
higher test scores,
18:44
higher parental satisfaction,
18:46
and higher student safety.
18:47
Last year,
18:48
Louisiana joined
18:49
the choice movement.
18:50
I'm very proud of that.
18:54
Our legislature
18:55
passed a school
18:56
choice program,
18:57
we call it
18:58
the Gator Act.
19:01
Starting this fall,
19:02
certain students,
19:03
not all of our kids,
19:04
we're going to
19:05
eventually ramp it up
19:06
so that it does
19:07
impact all of our kids,
19:08
but certain of our kids
19:10
will be able to
19:10
tap into state-funded
19:12
education savings accounts
19:14
that parents can use
19:15
to pay for their child
19:17
to attend a different
19:18
public or a different
19:19
private or a different
19:20
charter school.
19:21
And our goal is
19:23
three years.
19:24
In three years,
19:25
every student in Louisiana
19:26
will be eligible
19:28
to participate
19:30
in this choice program.
19:32
Now, I want to say it again.
19:33
I'm not saying
19:33
Louisiana schools are perfect.
19:35
I am not saying that.
19:37
But it is undeniable
19:38
that we're on the right track.
19:40
We are.
19:42
We stayed open
19:44
for the most part
19:44
during the pandemic.
19:46
We've trained our teachers.
19:49
We've established standards.
19:51
You can't go to the fourth grade
19:52
until you can read.
19:53
And we've implemented
19:55
parental choice.
19:58
I think President Trump,
20:01
and I don't want to just
20:02
limit this to the Republicans,
20:04
many of my Democratic colleagues
20:06
believe in choice as well,
20:08
that sometimes they can't
20:09
be as vocal about it.
20:11
But I know I've talked to them.
20:13
They understand,
20:14
as does the White House,
20:16
that America's future
20:18
is sitting in these classrooms
20:19
every day
20:20
throughout the country.
20:22
I've said it a zillion times,
20:23
a squillion times in Louisiana.
20:25
The key to Louisiana's future
20:27
is not the price of oil.
20:29
It's not what
20:30
the unemployment rate is.
20:31
It's not who the senator is
20:32
or the governor is.
20:34
It's education.
20:35
And the status quo
20:37
in America isn't working.
20:39
We didn't make it any better
20:40
as a result of our behavior
20:42
with respect to the pandemic.
20:44
And we're behind,
20:45
but we can catch up
20:46
if we just do the right things.
20:49
One of those things
20:50
is returning education
20:51
to the states.
20:52
I hope we do dismantle
20:54
the Department of Education.
20:55
It's basically a conduit
20:57
for money,
20:58
except that money goes
21:00
through the Department of Education
21:02
and the 4,000 employees there.
21:04
And they all put a condition
21:06
on the money
21:08
as if they knew
21:10
what was best for each state.
21:11
They don't.
21:12
We ought to dismantle
21:13
the Department of Education
21:15
and send that money
21:16
directly to the states.
21:19
Thank you, Mr. President.
21:21
Thank you for your courtesy.
21:24
And congratulations
21:25
on the progress
21:26
that the wonderful state of Utah
21:28
has made in elementary
21:31
and secondary education.
21:34
Mr. President,
21:35
I yield the floor.
Recommended
5:31
|
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