Harrisburg, but – February 26, 2025 – This afternoon, the Senate Democrats completed a press conference in response to the adoption of the Budget Act by the House of US, which proposes significant cuts of financing federal education and continuous attacks on public education. You can watch today’s press conference Here. Senator Lindsey M. Williams, chairman of the minority of the Senate of the Educational Commission, comments start at 4:30. Below you can read a full transcript.
“We all know that the federal government’s actions are tumultuous. And although specific actions can be modern and entering the crazy pace, the goal is not modern. The goal was and will continue to dismantle, defend and destroy public education.
Let me be crystal clear: President Musk is writing the Education Department to find money to make him and his brother billionaires. Students who will wear the burden of this greed are our students with the greatest need – our disabled students.
Educational rights of disabled students are rooted in federal law. The enforcement of this law depends on the Education Department. When you get rid of the department – you get rid of the enforcement of this right.
This administration armed the Civil Rights Office of the Education Department. From the day of inauguration, the Bureau of Civil Rights has only opened about 20 investigations focusing on Trump’s priorities, putting over 10,000 complaints of students related to access to disability and sexual and racial harassment.
This attack on disabled students and public education is unfortunately nothing modern. Ronald Reagan called for the elimination of the Education Department less than two years after its creation. But even if the department survives, the threat to public education remains.
And we clearly see this threat with the nomination of Linda McMahon to direct the Education Department. The choice he wrote to me said best: “He has zero qualifications, but you can see him inside the wrestling ring, hitting someone in the face of rubbish. Shame on anyone who would vote for her. “
Someone who has practically no educational experience is not imported to assist students are brought to maximize the money that corporations will earn at the back of these students.
Education is one of the most extreme parts of the 2025 project, and students can still be harmed without the elimination of the department. We have seen these efforts in Pennsylvania for years because the Commonwealth Foundation and Jeffrey Yass Foundation are trying to privatize public education and displace families from public schools.
As a chairman of the minority of the Senate of the Education Committee, I will continue to call those billionaires and corporations who want to earn children and work to ensure high quality, integration public Education for all students.
I will close with a quote from another of my voters: “We will not lie down and accept it without using our votes. We are loud, we will hear, and the future of our children depends on it. “
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