Chairwoman Foxx, Ranking Member Scott, distinguished Members of the Committee – thank you for the opportunity to testify today on President Biden’s Fiscal Year 2025 budget request for the United States Department of Education.

My purpose here today is to propose a budget that helps protect and support our nation’s students.

To be clear: it is not to create a spectacle for the benefit of the media – or to provoke divisions that inflame culture wars and political sideshows but do nothing to help our young people succeed.

Our nation’s parents and students are looking for us to recognize that we have common ground, and to build on that by making responsible choices, together, to invest in education as the foundation for American opportunity.

It’s the responsible choice to sustain our nation’s academic recovery from the impacts of the pandemic through $82.4 billion in calculated investments to accelerate learning and success.

It’s the responsible choice to invest in a stronger future for all Americans by boosting funding to close opportunity and achievement gaps in low-income communities through Title I, support students with disabilities through IDEA, support multilingual learners through Title III, and recruit, prepare, retain, and develop great teachers.

It’s the responsible choice to invest in safer schools and the mental health of our students by making more funding available for more school counselors and mental health professionals.

It’s the responsible choice to give more young people access to the American Dream by building more pathways to rewarding careers and opening doors to higher education for all students by improving college affordability, retention, and completion, including through free community college and increased student supports.

And it’s the responsible choice to fully honor the caps under the bipartisan Fiscal Responsibility Act, as this budget does.

Let me emphasize: when we get beyond all the noise and efforts by some to create division, there is, in fact, so much common ground about what matters most for our nation’s students, such as:

• Getting all students to read by third grade,
• Providing mental health supports in the midst of a youth mental health crisis,
• Opening up college and career pathways so students have more options for rewarding lives and rewarding careers,
• And making higher education more affordable and more accessible for those who choose that path.

I know, too, that we have common ground when it comes to our horror at the appalling antisemitism we are seeing on some college campuses.

As the President said last week, there should be no place on any campus, no place in America for antisemitism or threats of violence against Jewish students. There is no place for hate speech or violence of any kind.

The Biden-Harris Administration, including the Department of Education, is taking action each and every day to help ensure that schools and colleges are free from discrimination and safe for Jewish students – and all students -- and we will continue to do so.

Make no mistake: Antisemitism is discrimination and is prohibited by Title VI of the Civil Rights Act of 1964.

Dissent is essential to democracy. But dissent must never lead to disorder or to denying the rights of others so students can finish the semester and their college education.

Hate has no place on college campuses – and every student deserves to learn in an environment where they can feel free to be themselves, without discrimination or fear for their safety.

That’s why this budget provides for more resources for our Office for Civil Rights to continue its strong response. And I hope to work with you in partnership and constructive dialogue.

We can raise the bar for our nation, together.

I look forward to working with you to do so. Thank you.