ICYMI: Ahead of Expected EO to Abolish Department of Education, Murray, Seattle School Board President, Parents, Advocates Raise Alarm Over Trump Dismantling Dept. of Ed
ICMYI: Senator Murray Blasts Trump’s Plans to Decimate the Department of Education
ICYMI: Ahead of Confirmation Vote, Senator Murray Blasts Linda McMahon’s Nomination: “We Cannot Have a Secretary of Education Who Doesn’t Believe in Having a Secretary of Education”
Washington, D.C. — Today, U.S. Senator Patty Murray (D-WA), Vice Chair of the Senate Appropriations Committee and a senior member and former Chair of the Senate Health, Education, Labor and Pensions (HELP) Committee, issued the following statement on the executive order President Trump is expected to sign this afternoon seeking to eliminate the Department of Education (ED):
“We should be focused on helping our kids with math and reading—the basics they need to succeed. Absolutely no one is asking for three out-of-touch billionaires to rip apart the Department of Education over some deranged far-right culture war.
“Donald Trump knows perfectly well he can’t abolish the Department of Education without Congress—but he understands that if you fire all the staff and smash it to pieces, you might get a similar, devastating result. In taking a wrecking ball to the Department, Trump is making it harder for students to get help getting financial aid, jeopardizing the funding schools and families count on every day, and making it easier for predatory businesses to rip students off.
“Trump and Musk are selling snake oil—because the obvious truth is dismantling the Department and ripping support away from students and schools won’t do a thing to help improve test scores and make sure our kids get the support they need to thrive. And while Trump claims he wants to ‘return education to the states,’ we know that couldn’t be farther from the truth—because Trump and Musk are, at this very moment, trying to exert ever more control over local schools and dictate what they can and cannot teach.
“Trump, Musk, and McMahon’s goal is clear: destroy public schools and enrich themselves in the process. The billionaires running our government may not understand why federal financial aid or funding for working class school districts or watchdogs protecting students from scammy for-profit colleges matters—but the constituents I talk to every day do, and they are not sitting quiet while Trump seeks to destroy public education in America.”
A senior member and former chair of the HELP Committee, Senator Murray has championed students and families at every stage of her career—fighting to help ensure every child in America can get a high-quality public education. Among other things, Senator Murray negotiated the bipartisan Every Student Succeeds Act (ESSA), landmark legislation that she got signed into law, replacing the broken No Child Left Behind Act. As a longtime appropriator, she has successfully fought to boost funding to support students and invest in our nation’s K-12 schools, and she has secured significant increases to the Pell Grant so that it goes further for students pursuing a higher education. Senator Murray also successfully negotiated the FAFSA Simplification Act, bipartisan legislation to reform the financial aid application process, simplify the FAFSA form for students and parents, and significantly expand eligibility for federal aid.
On Monday, Senator Murray led a letter demanding detailed answers from the Department of Education about the Trump administration’s mass firings and other detrimental actions, which risk major reductions in support for and oversight of federal investments in our nation’s K-12 schools and institutions of higher education and which threaten vital support for students with disabilities, access to Pell Grants and other financial aid, oversight of student loan servicers, scrutiny of for-profit colleges, and more. The letter follows an earlier March 6 letter Senator Murray sent alongside colleagues demanding answers about the chaotic, harmful actions taken by ED since January—which the Department has yet to respond to.
During Secretary Linda McMahon’s confirmation hearing, Senator Murray pressed McMahon on whether she will ensure approved funding gets out to serve students as the law requires and whether she would protect students’ data from DOGE. She also asked McMahon to name a single requirement of ESSA. McMahon couldn’t name any. Ahead of McMahon’s confirmation, Senator Murray spoke out on the Senate floor against her nomination and sounded the alarm over President Trump and Elon Musk’s plans to dismantle the U.S. Department of Education.
A fact sheet outlining how the Department of Education supports students in Washington state is HERE.
###