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By: Serach Nissim
New York Gov. Kathy Hochul and US Sen. Kirsten Gillibrand spoke out against President Donald Trump’s alluded plans to possibly nix the Department of Education. As reported by the NY Post, the two Democrats said Sunday at a press meeting that if the DOE were to be eradicated, with the federal government no longer providing funding to states for schools, the states would need to scramble for funding, and ultimately property taxes in NYS would jump as a result.
“This is $5.5 billion that the State receives annually from the Department of Education — $3.2 billion goes directly into our budget, $2.3 billion goes to localities. If that money is jeopardized, what I can tell you will happen, localities lose that money, they will have to raise taxes,” Hochul said. “For outside the city, your largest part of your local property tax bill is your school taxes. If that money evaporates from the federal government, where are they going to go?” the governor added. “This is going to hit homeowners and businesses, and I want them to be aware of this consequence.”
The warning was in response to reported that President Trump is considering gutting the department through an executive order and then pushing for legislation to abolish it permanently. In an effort to shrink the size of the federal government, Trump has been hinting to such a move since his first term. While on the campaign trail, in September President Trump has said in a clip posted on social media: “One other thing I’ll be doing very early in the administration is closing up the Department of Education in Washington, D.C., and sending all education and education work and needs back to the states.” He added, “In total American society pours more than $1 trillion a year into public education systems, but instead of being at the top of the list, we are literally right smack — guess what — at the bottom.”
The DOE was created in 1979, towards the end of President Jimmy Carter’s term. Carter’s goal in establishing the department was to uphold fairness and equality in Americans’ pursuit of education, which the president believed was “a fundamental right” for all.
Its formation split the Department of Health, Education, and Welfare into the Department of Education and the Department of Health and Human Services. It isn’t clear if Trump plans to reunite the two departments or if the DOE will be dissolved altogether, per the Post. Nixing the DOE would kill all programs it runs in elementary and secondary schools, including free lunches for low-income students, as well as the Pell Grants that fund college undergraduate attendance for roughly 7 million students yearly.
Some programs could potentially be moved to other agencies.
Gov. Hochul pleaded to Republicans in congress for help on the issue. “I want to know where New York state Republican members of Congress are on this issue. Where are you? Where are you? You are elected to represent the people who are going to be adversely affected, especially our children. And if you can’t speak up for them, then get out of your job and go do something else. We need your help,” Hochul said.
President Trump cannot completely abolish the DOE without congress’s support, and 60 votes would be required to overcome a filibuster in the House and Senate in order to move on to a final vote.
