Aderholt Remarks at Budget Hearing on U.S. Department of Education

Good morning.  I am very pleased to welcome our new Secretary of Education, Linda McMahon, to the House Appropriations Committee. Today we will hear about the Department of Education’s budget request for Fiscal Year 2026. Secretary McMahon has wasted no time implementing President Trump’s bold agenda to restore education to the states and I want to commend her efforts to hit the ground running. 

First, I think we need to acknowledge the situation the Trump Administration had to face day one – plummeting test scores for our K-12 students and millions of borrowers who had never paid one dollar on their student loans.  This subcommittee examined a number of these problems earlier this year. Despite increasing federal spending on education, our students are not getting ahead academically; in fact despite record spending, they’ve lost ground compared to other nations. The latest National Assessment of Educational Progress scores show that one-third of eighth graders nationwide are reading below the basic level. Student test scores overall are below 2019 levels, evidence that students have not recovered from the pandemic, despite $200 billion in federal COVID education spending. That was on top of annual federal funding for education, including nearly $19 billion for Title One schools. Most alarming, the scores reveal a widening achievement gap. In reading, lower-performing students in the fourth and eighth grades scored lower than students in 1992, more than 30 years ago.

Students deserve better, but ever-increasing federal spending has not proven to be the solution. Earlier this year, one expert told the subcommittee that education spending per pupil has more than tripled in real terms since Lyndon Johnson’s “War on Poverty” began in 1965. More spending, but worse results.

Students need reading, writing, math, and critical thinking for everyday activities, to succeed in their jobs, and to make life’s big decisions. But too many schools, encouraged and facilitated by federal funding, have let things like social justice advocacy and divisive issues crowd out the focus on teaching students the core subjects.

Thankfully, some States have pursued school choice options for students whose traditional public school is not serving them, including through charter schools. Department data shows that as of 2021, public charter school enrollment had more than doubled from a decade before, growing by about 2 million students, while enrollment at traditional public schools declined by 4 percent. I look forward to hearing more about the increased support for charter schools. 

Thankfully, the new Administration sees value in reassessing our approach, so we can do better for students. It also recognizes a limited federal role in education. After all, only about one in ten education dollars come from the federal government. Education fundamentally remains within the purview of States and local communities. At the same time, I should note that we can still prioritize key areas such as support for schools near federal military installation and under-resourced schools in rural areas, while limiting the overall federal role.

In higher education, there are bright spots with bipartisan support, such as Pell Grants, which help lower-income students pay for college. But the prior Administration somehow made a broken financial aid system worse, injecting more politics into the student loan program.  The disastrous federal student loan program is the direct result of the partisan Affordable Care Act (also known as the ACA and Obamacare), which included a Washington takeover of student loans. As we all know, a Washington takeover of anything is rarely a good idea. 

The ACA converted the guaranteed loan program into a federally run program. At the time, members of Congress were told it would save $60 billion dollars over ten years. However, in projections released last year, the Congressional Budget Office reported that it expects the government will lose 18 cents for every dollar it lends in 2025. Not a dollar of savings to be had. Thankfully Republican led reconciliation efforts this year seek to address some of these shortcomings. Against this backdrop, the prior Administration put untold amounts of taxpayer resources into executive actions, waivers, and programs it created without Congressional authority, to try to cancel loans and make loan repayment more generous. 

It told borrowers that forgiveness was always on the horizon, while also going through the motions to restart repayment. The result? Massive confusion for 43 million borrowers who were supposed to begin monthly payments after a more than three-year pause, and confusion in the loan servicing system. Because of the mass confusion created under the previous Administration, the Department estimates nearly one in four of these borrowers, more than 10 million people, are in default or late on their payments, putting them at risk of future default.  Just thirty-eight percent, or 16 million borrowers, are in repayment and current on their loans. 

Secretary McMahon, you have inherited an absolute mess, but I am hopeful you can correct the course.

Madam Secretary, you have taken swift action to restore common sense to our college campuses. The Department has made clear all students should be able to access their campuses without fear of their safety, while still allowing the peaceful exercise of free speech. Too many students in recent memory have been subjected to severe campus disruptions, including at some of our nation’s most elite institutions. The Department also has taken steps to return to the original purpose of Title Nine, ensuring that women and girls have an equal opportunity to compete in sports.  I would also like to thank you and President Trump for your actions to protect women and girls in sports. 

Secretary McMahon, thank you for your department’s bold initiatives as you carry out the President’s America First agenda. We must consider new approaches to long-standing problems, both for the sake of our students and to be good stewards of taxpayer dollars. I look forward to working with you and look forward to your testimony here today.