The Daily Signal - Trump's Education EO, Schumer Admits Judges are Political | March 21, 2025

Starting point is 00:00:00 President Trump directs Education Secretary Linda McMahon to begin preparations for shutting down the Department of Education. Senate Minority Leader Schumer admits judges' rulings are political on national TV. And we round out the week with a few snapshot stories you might miss. I'm Tony Kennett from the Daily Signals Tony Kenned cast, syndicated nationally at 7 p.m. Eastern. It is Friday, March 21st, 2025. This is the Daily Signals Top News in 10. Yesterday afternoon, President Trump began laying the groundwork for scaling back the Federal Department of Education drastically via an executive order and a series of statements. Check it out. After 45 years, the United States spends more money on education by far than any other country and spends likewise by far more money per pupil than any country and it's not even close.

Starting point is 00:00:53 But yet we rank near the bottom of the list in terms of success. It's an amazing stat. Those are two stats you don't want. The most money spent per pupil, and you're at the bottom of the list. And that's where we are, like it or not, and we've been there for a long time. 70% of eighth graders are not proficient in either reading or in math. 70%. 40% of fourth graders lack even basic reading skills.

Starting point is 00:01:21 Can't read. Students in our public elementary and middle schools score worse in reading today than when the department opened by a lot. In Baltimore, 40% of the high schools have zero students who can do basic mathematics. Not even the very simplest of mathematics. I said, give me your definition of basic, and they're talking about like adding a few numbers together. Despite these breathtaking failures, the department's discretionary budget is exploded by 600% in a very short period of time. and employs bureaucrats in buildings all over Washington, D.C.

Starting point is 00:02:01 Secretary McMahon issued a statement that federal services such as providing Pell grants and different financial assistance for existing federal programs that aid students and things like college payment will continue at present. Congressional Democrats, teachers' union heads, and left-wing political activists are very unhappy with Trump's executive order scaling back the Department of Education. Randy Weingarten, the president of the second large, Teachers Union in the country, the American Federation of Teachers, issued scathing remarks yesterday on national TV.

Starting point is 00:02:33 The biggest concern is all the opportunity gaps that the federal government provides through the Department of Education. The federal education role is limited. There's no, except for, you know, the Department of Defense schools, which is, not run from the Department of Education or the Bureau of Indian Affairs schools that are not run by the Department of Education, it doesn't control any schools. In fact, it's the states that control schools. So if President Trump doesn't like what's happening in education, it's the states and local school boards that do it. What the department does is there's about $100 billion.

Starting point is 00:03:19 So a kid who has disabilities, a kid who is poor, a kid who's going to head star, a kid who's in a rural area, kid who is in a career tech ed program, a kid who gets a Pell Grant, a kid who's limited English proficient. Every single one of those kids, which are essentially most of our kids in public schools, they get basically 10% of every dollar that's spent on them

Starting point is 00:03:47 is from the Department of Education. Congressional Democrats sent out a series of scathing statements from their offices, for example, Representative John Garimendi of California said it was an official act of war on America's students. Quote, Donald Trump has declared war on America's students. His illegal order to eliminate the Department of Education will devastate children and families nationwide from preschool through college. The Federal Department of Education does not currently oversee preschool education in the United States. He continues, Trump does not have the authority to dismantle a federal agency by executive order.

Starting point is 00:04:25 Trump's executive order did not directly attempt to dismantle the Department of Education. This is yet another unconstitutional overreach by his administration and congressional Republicans. If allowed to stand, this reckless action will lead to skyrocketing class sizes, the mass firing of teachers, deep cuts to special education programs, higher college costs, and widespread harm to millions of students. None of those statements is in any way, shape, or form backed up by any data. cutting the Department of Education in the United States would push all of that funding then back to the states themselves, who would be able to spend that money on teachers, special education programs, keeping class sizes down, college costs, and various other expenses that states found it necessary to spend education money on.

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Starting point is 00:05:44 Now, that's not the only Congressional Democrat making major national statements at the moment. Senator Minority Leader Chuck Schumer got in front of the cameras on the PBS, NewsHour and admitted that the recent federal and district court judge rulings against the Trump administration's executive orders and national security actions are political and not about upholding the law and the constitution of the United States. Check it out. There are those who believe that we are in real time living through an assault on the constitutional order. Do you believe that we are in a constitutional crisis right now? Yes, our democracy is at risk because Donald Trump shows that he wishes to violate the laws in many, many different ways.

Starting point is 00:06:29 The good news here is we did put 235 judges, progressive judges, judges not under the control of Trump last year on the bench, and they are ruling against Trump time after time after time. And we hope that the appellate courts, when it gets up there and the Supreme Court, will uphold those rulings. They restored the money to NIH. They required that 8,000 federal employees have to come back. We're in over 100 lawsuits against them, and we are having a good deal of success.

Starting point is 00:07:01 It's only at the lower court level right now. Senator Schumer also stated that the reason the Democrats were currently going around to Republican town halls and holding town halls in red districts was to attack the approval ratings of President Trump. We are mobilizing in New York. We have people going to the Republican districts and going after these Republicans who are voting for this and forcing them to either face, change their vote or face the consequences. This is a long, relentless fight that we fight every day. And I am confident that we will bring Trump's popularity, numbers, and strength down if we keep at it and keep at it and keep at it.

Starting point is 00:07:46 Now on to a few snapshot stories that you may have missed during the week. Courtney Merritt's, the husband of former Democrat Congresswoman Corey Bush, has been indicted on two counts of wire fraud. The charges stemmed from allegations that he fraudulently obtained over $20,000 through the Paycheck Protection Program, the PPP, by falsely claiming to support a business with 10 employees. The Department of Justice announced these charges yesterday, highlighting issues related to the misuse of COVID-19 relief funds.

Starting point is 00:08:19 The mayor of Denver, Colorado and several of his staff may have committed a felony regarding how they communicated about Donald Trump's immigration policies. According to a report from CBS News, Denver's Democrat Mayor Mike Johnston and 14 of his top advisors, appointees, and lawyers nicknamed themselves, quote, strike force and communicated about the city's migrant crisis through an end-to-end encryption act. a private messaging tool that prevents others from looking in. This is what CBS News, Colorado has learned. The app called Signal then proceeded to automatically delete their initial conversations

Starting point is 00:08:57 based on the settings they set the Signal app to act by. According to CBS News, a spokesperson for Johnston said the signal messaging was prompted by President Trump and how his administration, quote, could have significant impacts on how Denver operates, end quote. A government official in the state of Colorado who knowingly creates communications and then deletes said communications so that they will be unobtainable by individuals in the state of Colorado violates the Colorado Open Records Act, Cora. Quote, as a general rule, any person who may be subject to the open records law should

Starting point is 00:09:35 err on the side of considering all communications to be potentially releasable, including records kept on a personally owned or private device. Lastly, but certainly, not leastly, the New York Court of Appeals has just ruled against New York City's law which allowed non-citizens to vote. It was a six to one decision. The New York State Constitution prohibits non-citizens voting explicitly, using the word citizen in the definition of an individual who is allowed to cast a ballot in an election. Before you go, check the description below to make sure you're subscribed to the Tony Kennedcast and join us tonight at 7 p.m. for updates on the outbreak of domestic terrorism across the United States, and you guessed it, more district court injunctions.

Starting point is 00:10:21 I'm Tony Kinnett, and this has been The Daily Signals, Top News in 10. Take care.

The Daily Signal - Trump's Education EO, Schumer Admits Judges are Political | March 21, 2025

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