(WNY News Now ) – Governor Kathy Hochul, alongside education leaders, delivers a passionate plea against the dismantling of the Department of Education, emphasizing the devastating consequences for New York’s students.
Governor Kathy Hochul joined a virtual press conference with education leaders on President Trump’s Executive Order dismantling the Department of Education.
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Denise, thank you so much. And I know we’ll be hearing from Becky Pringle. I want to thank her for extraordinary work as the president of NEA. And also joining you is someone that I’m extremely fond of, Barack Obama’s Secretary of Education, who I was able to snag to become our Chancellor of our entire State University System, Chancellor John King. So you do have an all-star cast here. But I think about casts and performances. Think about the fact that Donald Trump could have picked anybody he wanted to be the Secretary of Education. A lot of talented people out there who are dedicated to our children. Now, who did he pick? He picked a pro-wrestling mogul who is in the process of body slamming our Department of Education.
So, what does that mean for a place like New York? Five billion dollars in cuts. We’re talking about billions of dollars lost in Pell Grants, money for kids with disabilities, programs that are helping our kids in rural areas, and mental health. I mean, what they’re doing is saying our kids don’t matter. What’s more important is that we slash for the sake of slashing, and also be able to fund tax breaks for millionaires and billionaires.
So instead of supporting a math class, they’re supporting tax breaks for the buddies at Mar-a-Lago. So that’s the reality we’re dealing with here in New York. And I have to give some news to everybody — and this is a message from all the governors: We’re not going to be able to backfill losses like this scale — $5 billion. So the children are going to suffer. But there’s only one way to reverse this before the next presidential election, and that is in the midterms. That is what happens in 2026, and that’s another whole topic, but that’s what I’m laser focused on is building a firewall in the House of Representatives at least, and possibly the Senate, so we can stop the insanity and put our focus on the kids.
What we do now with this generation of kids is going to make a difference for generations to come because it’s an investment in the future workforce. And we are in global competition with other countries. And if we stop these investments now, then we’re basically saying, “We give up. We’re not even going to compete.”
I’m not going to stand for that here in the State of New York. So, as always, I’m calling on teachers and advocates and parents and students. Use your voices and stand up and scream from the mountaintops. This must stop. And I want to shame them into everything they’re contemplating and doing and saying, “Don’t do this to our kids. I’m New York’s first mom Governor, so anything that happens to our children is personal to me.”
So that’s my message from New York.
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