At a House Education & Workforce Committee hearing on Wednesday, Rep. Joe Courtney (D-CT) questioned Education Secretary Linda McMahon about her budget priorities.
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00:00I now recognize the gentleman from Connecticut, Mr. Courtney.
00:03Great, thank you, Mr. Chairman.
00:05Secretary McMay, in your opening remarks,
00:08you focused on the need for giving parents and families
00:13the choice in terms of their children's education.
00:17And sure enough, in your skinny budget,
00:20the line item for charter schools was plussed up,
00:26which I guess is consistent with those remarks.
00:28However, you zeroed out magnet schools in the skinny budget.
00:33We both come from Connecticut.
00:36U.S. News and World Report did their annual ranking
00:38of high schools in the state of Connecticut.
00:41The number one high school in the state of Connecticut
00:44is a magnet school in East Hartford,
00:45the Connecticut IB Academy.
00:47The number three high school in terms of quality
00:50in the state of Connecticut is the Marine Science Magnet School
00:53in Groton, Connecticut, which I have the honor of representing.
00:57There is not a charter school in the top 50, and again, this is not,
01:02my question is not really about whether charter schools perform
01:06or don't perform, but what your budget does is it undercuts parental choice
01:10because magnet schools are choice-driven programs.
01:14I can say that personally because my daughter attended a magnet school,
01:19and it was an excellent education experience.
01:23You zeroed out that account, which completely undercuts and contradicts the hype
01:29in your opening statement about supporting parental choice.
01:33I mean, why wouldn't you support magnet schools?
01:37Well, I do support magnet schools, and as we both know, in Connecticut,
01:42I'll speak to magnet schools, but also in Connecticut, there has been the lowest growth
01:47in charter schools, I think we're like fifth from the bottom, in the country
01:51for allowing more charter school growth.
01:52So why zero out magnets?
01:54Magnet schools are also, as are charter schools, they are public schools.
01:59So in the public schools funding, then I think that as the states have more control
02:05over their state budgets, they can allocate those dollars to magnet schools.
02:09I think magnet schools are great, and I know that a lot of them do focus
02:12on particular kinds of studies.
02:14Well, thank you.
02:14I'm just reclaiming my talk is cheap.
02:16Budgets are what count, and this budget does not say that magnet schools are great.
02:20I have another question I want to just move on.
02:22Well, you referenced the skinny budget, and that was an operating plan.
02:24We now have the full budget, so we might take another look at that.
02:27Yeah, it says zero.
02:28You may still be correct, but I'll be happy to get back to you.
02:31I want to move on to the Perkins program, which, again,
02:36is very important in the state of Connecticut.
02:37I was at a graduation ceremony on Wednesday in Groton where 170 high schoolers
02:43were given job offers by Electric Boat Shipyard because of Perkins grants funded programs,
02:48both in tech schools and comprehensive high schools and welding, metal trades.
02:53The hype, again, from this administration is that they're going to support trades schools,
02:58but looking at your budget, again, it's a zero increase in the Perkins line item,
03:03which I guess could have been worse.
03:06You could have cut it in terms of the program, but in terms of meeting the moment of job openings,
03:12which you mentioned in your opening remarks, and certainly we have huge job openings in southeastern Connecticut.
03:18This budget does not match the rhetoric in terms of trade schools or the trades.
03:24What I want to ask you is that, you know, we're trying to figure out in terms of just the interaction
03:29between job training programs at the Department of Labor and Perkins grant program,
03:33and can you tell me, again, whether or not it is your intention to move the Office of Career, Technical,
03:39and Adult Education to the Department of Labor?
03:42Well, thank you for that question, Representative.
03:46I can tell you that one of the executive orders from the President was that the Commerce Department,
03:53Department of Labor, and Department of Education should coordinate and look at workforce programs.
03:58There were over 43 different workforce development programs across all of the agencies.
04:04It's certainly inefficient in operation.
04:06So I've had many discussions with Commerce.
04:09I've had many discussions with the Secretary of Labor,
04:11and I think there are opportunities to move some of those programs into other agencies.
04:15Well, in your discussions, I would hope you would note the fact that it's in statute
04:19that that office is in the Department of Education.
04:21Perkins was enacted after the Department of Education was created.
04:25It is housed in the Department of Education, and we are going to be watching very closely
04:30in terms of whether or not there's a move made that violates that law.
04:34I also would just note, in closing, the adult education line item was zeroed out, which is just stunning.
04:41I mean, this is a program that allows adult learners to get a second chance in life,
04:45because some people who didn't complete high school on time, and also immigrants who, again,
04:51want to get the literacy skills so that they can get naturalized as citizens.
04:55I'm speaking at an adult, I was invited to speak at an adult education graduation ceremony
04:59in Vernon Friday night, and again, it's pretty sad to be able to bring news from Washington
05:06that the Secretary of Education doesn't support adult education.
05:10With that, I yield back.