00:00After that, the year after that, ready to be in place, and we've made great strides in doing that.
00:05And so we're back up and running and functioning fully.
00:08Thank you so much. My universities will be ecstatic to hear that.
00:11Thank you, Mr. Chairman. I yield back.
00:13Thank you. Representative Dean.
00:16Thank you, Mr. Chairman.
00:17Secretary McMahon, I wanted to hit quickly two topics.
00:23Mental health cuts, the administration cut a billion dollars.
00:27Well, actually, let's put it this way. Just stop paying a billion dollars allocated for mental health service professional demonstration grant and school-based mental health services grant.
00:38Do you recognize that our school children are struggling with mental health?
00:42Many of our children are struggling with mental health?
00:45I think mental health is...
00:48Do you recognize our students are struggling?
00:50I think it's a critical component around the country.
00:52Our students?
00:53Some students, yes.
00:54Yes. It was made worse during the time of COVID.
00:58It is exacerbated by school shootings.
01:01I noted that you said you were going to meet with parents and children who had struggled and suffered the trauma of school shootings.
01:10I've done that over the years, sadly.
01:12I've had the opportunity to meet with Uvalde parents, with Parkland parents, with Sandy Hook parents.
01:19Are you meeting with parents and children, students, in those places?
01:24I have only in Sandy Hook because that happened in my state of Connecticut.
01:29Yes.
01:29So I have met with some of those parents shortly after, and I can't imagine a more horrible tragedy than that.
01:34How about the students to see how they're affected?
01:38I've not talked to many of the students, no.
01:40Do you plan to do that?
01:41Sure. I would enjoy doing that.
01:43How soon can you do that?
01:45Because you did talk about doing that on CNN recently.
01:47Well, I'm not sure how quickly.
01:49You're the secretary.
01:50You can do whatever you want because, after all, you're cutting all this funding.
01:53You've got time.
01:55I've got a lot of responsibilities to do, and we're going to focus on the things that I think are going to ensure that we're providing equal education for all of the students in our country.
02:04That's great, which is just in contrast to actually what you have said and what you said the president cares about.
02:12He wants the best educated students, right?
02:15He wants to make education great again, right?
02:18Yes.
02:20I don't understand.
02:21It seems like a logic fallacy to me.
02:23You think the federal Department of Education is not living up to what it ought to be doing, and you cite some statistics for students who are not doing as well as they ought to be.
02:33And yet, you decide that the answer to that is not to check on these investments and make sure students are achieving.
02:42It is shut the whole doggone thing down.
02:45That doesn't make any sense.
02:47Well, I think the fallacy is the way you're stating it.
02:49And what I have looked at and said from the very beginning, we have failed.
02:54So this system we have in place does not work.
02:56So it is your mission to shut it down.
02:58It has been looked at.
02:58It is the mission to shut down the bureaucracy of the Department of Education and return education to the states.
03:03To shut down the Department of Education.
03:05To shut down the bureaucracy.
03:06What's the balance right now?
03:07To shut down the bureaucracy of the Department of Education.
03:08What's the balance right now in the funding for education?
03:11What's the split?
03:12The pie chart.
03:13How much is federal?
03:14How much is state and local?
03:16Federal is about 8 to 10 percent.
03:18Correct.
03:20The rest is state and local.
03:21The burden is already there.
03:23And you don't want to come up with the 8 percent to help our kids succeed.
03:28To help their mental health.
03:29Excuse me.
03:29To help kids with disabilities.
03:31Oh, you're wrong.
03:31You're misstating.
03:32It is a logic fallacy.
03:33No, no, no.
03:33You are misstating the funding.
03:35It's not taking away all of this funding.
03:37I've already said Title I-A funding, IDEA funding is still going to come into the states.
03:42How about the mental health funding?
03:43There may be some more of that funding.
03:45If HHS oversees then mental funding.
03:47But the president has unconstitutionally cut off the grant.
03:50That funding may come into those states.
03:53So I think we have to see how the full budget happens.
03:56How about students with disabilities?
03:56And I think we have to see what those programs are that are going to best serve every student
04:00and not just be put by the wayside.
04:04As I said, on page one of your testimony, you said the president's vision is to-
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