U.S. Education Secretary Betsy DeVos faced another tough volley of questions over the president’s proposed education budget for the coming fiscal year. And again the criticism came from both Democrats and Republicans, this time from members of the Senate education appropriations subcommittee.
Sen. Roy Blunt (R-Missouri), chair of the panel, set the tone with his opening to the proposed budget hearing, noting “this is a difficult budget request to defend.”
Blunt lauded the Trump administration’s support to reinstate year-round Pell grants — which was part of an agreement to continue funding programs for the current fiscal year — but he questioned the president’s recommendations to slash the Pell Grant surplus and freeze the maximum Pell grant amount. The plan would also cut funding for Perkins career and technical education (CTE), TRIO and Work Study programs, which are popular programs that students use to control college expenses, he said.
“I think it’s likely that the kinds of cuts proposed in this budget will not occur,” Blunt said.
Regarding year-round Pell, the chairman asked how the department would craft rules to implement it, noting that he hoped it would not result in “extra hoops” that qualifying students would have to navigate to receive them.
“We will honor the intent of Congress to leave the maximum amount of flexibility for students,” DeVos said, adding that she understood the importance of having access to Pell grants for summer courses, especially for nontraditional students.
Harsher criticism
Democrats were harsher with their criticism of the budget. Sen. Patrick Leahy (D-Vermont) said he could sum up the proposal in one word: “Abysmal.” He too cited the value of Pell to college students and that the president’s plan would hurt the program.
“The best way to create a foundation for greatness … is to continue to invest in education,” he said.
Sen. Dick Durbin (D-Illinois) said that freezing the Pell Grant maximum and cutting the program’s surplus would force more college students to take students loans, at a time when student loan debt already exceeds credit card debt in the U.S.
DeVos said student debt also concerns her, adding that there are many available jobs that require some postsecondary education, though not necessarily a four-year degree.
“We haven’t done a good job of letting students know what their full menu of options are when it comes to higher education,” she said.
Sen. Richard Shelby (D-Alabama) noted that President Trump and DeVos both tout CTE but the administration’s budget calls to substantially cut funding for those programs. He added that the funding is especially critical to states, many of which have seen their coffers plummet over the past decade.
DeVos said that there are overlaps between CTE and Labor Department job training programs.
“We ought to look at this holistically,” she said.
U.S. Labor Secretary Alex Acosta will appear before House education appropriators on June 7 to discuss the proposed budget for his department.
