‘If It Ain’t Broke, Don’t Fix It’: Lou Correa Passionately Decries Subsidized Education Funding Cuts

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During a House Judiciary Committee hearing last week, Rep. Lou Correa (D-CA) spoke about cuts to subsidized education funding.

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00:00I ask unanimous consent to enter into the record ABC News article. Judge finalizes $25 million

00:06settlement for victims of Donald Trump's fraudulent university. And USA Today, judge

00:11finalizes $25 million settlement for students of Sham University. Without objection. A gentleman

00:17from California is now recognized for five minutes. Thank you, Mr. Chairman. Appreciate you and the

00:21ranking member. Thank you for holding this hearing today. I'm sure here in Washington, D.C.,

00:28discussing Brown, discussing Harvard, discussing private elite universities is very important.

00:38Somehow, somewhere, but not to my district. We're blue collar middle class. My dad wasn't

00:45a doctor. He was a union worker making cardboard boxes. And my mom used to clean hotel rooms

00:52at $1.50 an hour. And we managed to survive. My neighbors, myself,

00:58we were on the same boat. Never thought about Harvard because we weren't going to have the

01:03grades. We weren't going to have the money. And we had to survive, pay the rent, pay the

01:10bills on a day-to-day basis. Appreciate holding this hearing today, talking about these elite

01:18institutions. But I can assure you, back home, nobody gives a darn about this stuff. What they

01:26care about is how to survive on a day-to-day basis. Public policy, government subsidization

01:34of public education. What's that old saying? If it ain't broke, don't fix it. The GI Bill,

01:43World War II, over. The greatest generation comes back. Comes back to the U.S. We decide to pay for

01:52their college education. We educated a generation, the greatest generation, that built the greatest

01:59country in the world on the government dime. My generation. I did go to the Harvard of the

02:06West Coast. Cal State Fullerton. Second-rate school. Not a UC, but a Cal State. That was right for this

02:17kid from the hood. By the way, my tuition then was zero.

02:24Pell Grant. Cal Grant. Paid for everything, and I skipped a few meals to make it happen.

02:31Here we are today, discussing Harvard, Brown. I'm going to have to go back and tell my constituents that

02:42two or three hours spent here today is going to make a big difference in their life. I will tell you

02:49what they're looking at. Cal Grants. Pell Grants. Cutting of Pell Grants. School loans. They want to know

02:58how they can also get the opportunity to go to college. And by the way, subsidization of education?

03:04I thought we were all taxpayers. Do we not have the opportunity as taxpayers to say where tax dollars

03:11are going to go? And don't those taxpayers go to our children? The greatest gift God gives us,

03:18our children, to educate them? So what's wrong with a subsidized loan that they will have to pay back?

03:26What is against public policy here? Again, if it ain't broke, don't fix it. Let's go a little bit

03:34further. Current administration. Public policy. Research grants. California. Immigrants. Chart behind

03:47me shows all of the AI companies that have been recently started up by immigrants in this country.

03:56I thought we were supposed to win the AI competition. And I bring this up in the context of if it ain't

04:06broke, why are we changing education, public policy, investing in research and development, investing in

04:15making sure the best and the brightest from around the world come to help us come up with new inventions

04:22in this country? Keep us ahead of the rest of the world. So again, what is it that's broke that we

04:32are trying to fix? Would the gentleman yield for a question? Go ahead. Mr. Correa, thank you for your

04:38very passionate and eloquent remarks. What would have happened to you if you had not had access to Pell

04:46grants and Cal grants and public money to go to school? What would happen to your working class

04:50constituents today? Were you asking me to delve into a personal confession? The gift that my father

04:55gave me when I graduated from high school was he said, can't give you a watch. Can't give you something

05:01nice. But I can free you. You don't have to help us pay rent or pay the bills. You focus on studying.

05:10And that's where that financial aid came in to being. This kid from the hood who wasn't quite ready

05:16for college was able to make it with that financial aid.

05:20The gentleman's time has expired. Now I recognize Mr. Gooden from...

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