During a Senate Appropriations Committee hearing on Tuesday, Sen. Jeff Merkley (D-OR) asked Education Secretary Linda McMahon about cuts to mental health grants.
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00:00kids to go to college. We've not changed loan programs. I'm going to turn to mental health
00:05because I'm very concerned about mental health. A few years ago, before COVID, when I was in a
00:12meeting with student counselors in eastern Oregon, a very rural area, and they said, you know, we're
00:17seeing kids come in in our early ages and they're acting out much more than they ever did before.
00:22And I said, well, is this because was there a factory that just shut down here or a mill that
00:26just shut down or an infusion of new wave of meth? And they said, no, those are all, the economy's a
00:33factor, drug use is a factor in our community, but no, those aren't new. And one of the counselors
00:37said, this is what's new. And they pulled out their cell phone. This is what's new. Kids are coming in
00:43with far less understanding and ability of how to sit in a collaborative environment like a classroom
00:49and how to communicate with other children and teachers. There is a book that just came out.
00:56My staff happened to put it on my desk this morning. So I'm going to ask for chapter five to be put into
01:02the record, The Anxious Generation. And I was paging through it. And under chapter five, it notes that
01:10there are four factors in which these cell phones are affecting our children profoundly. Social
01:17deprivation, sleep deprivation, attention fragmentation, and screen addiction. I'd really
01:23encourage you to take a look at this. I've been urging the department to seriously look at the
01:28issue of how childhood is changing. And childhood is changing because of technology in ways that are
01:36really compromising the ability of our education enterprise to work well. But this brings to my
01:42point about why you have canceled mental health grants for our schools. We have five schools in Oregon that
01:50got grants to have more mental health counselors, and you have canceled them. Why have you canceled mental
01:56health grants in the middle of an enormously challenging time for our students? We've not
02:02canceled mental health grants. We've said we're not continuing them after this year. Because we're going to allow
02:08those programs to be rebid and to take a different look at them. But they have not been canceled. And I
02:12couldn't agree with you more about cell phones. Governor, there is governors of several states who have
02:18said bell to bell, there are not going to be cell phones in the classroom. And they are seeing upticks
02:22in their literacy and in also in the social interaction. So therefore, states have the abilities at very
02:29different levels to go ahead and make decisions and to put their policies in place that can be effective.
02:34Five, then the five grants that you have canceled that you are unaware of in Oregon, you will restore
02:40those five grants? We've not canceled. We're not continuing those grants. So if you discover that you
02:45have have actually canceled grants that were already awarded, you will undo those cancellations? I would
02:51like to get back to you on that. I do not believe we've canceled any grants. We're not continuing, but we
02:57will rebid them. Oh, you'll rebid them, meaning you're canceling them, but you'll rebid them.
03:02We are not continuing them. We haven't canceled them. Okay, well. We are continuing. Well, I've got
03:09five schools that have received letters from you or your department saying their grants, their mental
03:14health grants have been canceled. They worked very hard to apply for those grants. Canceled or not
03:17continued. That they've been canceled, the grants that they have received for their programs. I will
03:22look into that and get back to you. Obviously, when you get a grant, it's for work you're doing from here
03:26forward. So if not continuing means as of today, we're not funding it, then you canceled the grant. No, you can
03:32rebid the grant, you can recompete the grant, and you can have different aspects of it. Is that what you're
03:36doing? You said the grants you got, we're ending them and we're taking them back, but we're going to
03:40re-recompete them? I said we are not continuing them after this year. We will have a rebidding process to re-look at
03:47those grants. Well, I strongly encourage you to understand how the changes you're making are
03:52hurting ordinary kids across this country who may have aspirations and those aspirations may not all
03:59require going to college, but many of those aspirations can be well served by higher education
04:03and you shouldn't be putting obstacles in their path. Thank you. Senator Merkley, if you look,
04:08what we're doing has not worked. All right. So we're continuing to throw money at things that are
04:13not being successful. So we are trying to look appropriately at all of our grants and how the
04:18Department of Education is operating. Madam Chair, I'll just say those programs have been
04:22successful. If you'd taken the very effort to read the evaluations of the TRIO programs,
04:26you wouldn't be here making that argument today. All right. Let's, uh,