Senator Murray Statement on Trump Dismantling Department of Education’s Research Arm

Washington, D.C. - Today, U.S. Senator Patty Murray (D-WA), a senior member and former Chair of the Senate Health, Education, Labor and Pensions (HELP) Committee, issued the following statement on the Trump administration and Elon Musk gutting the U.S. Department of Education's Institute of Education Sciences (IES).

"Every kid deserves a great public education and that can't happen without nonpartisan research and data to understand what's working and what needs to be fixed. Instead, an unelected billionaire is now bulldozing the research arm of the Department of Education-taking a wrecking ball to high-quality research and basic data we need to improve our public schools. Cutting off these investments after the contract has already been inked is the definition of wasteful.

"Elon Musk doesn't care if working class kids in America get a good education, so whittling down the Department of Education means nothing to him. Make no mistake, this is just the first step Trump and Musk are taking to abolish the Department of Education, leaving our public schools with fewer resources and support to pay for massive tax cuts for billionaires and giant corporations. This former preschool teacher refuses to roll over and let Elon Musk gut public education in America. I'll be sounding the alarm with every parent, student, and teacher who believes in public education to stand up to Elon and Trump's illegal power grab."

A senior member and former chair of the HELP Committee, Senator Murray has championed students and families at every stage of her career-fighting to help ensure every child in America can get a high-quality public education. Among other things, Senator Murray negotiated the bipartisan Every Student Succeeds Act (ESSA), landmark legislation that she got signed into law, replacing the broken No Child Left Behind Act. As a longtime appropriator, she has successfully fought to boost funding to support students and invest in our nation's K-12 schools, and she has secured significant increases to the Pell Grant so that it goes further for students pursuing a higher education. Senator Murray also led the Foundations for Evidence-Based Policymaking Act of 2018, landmark legislation on the use and development of evidence and data in federal policymaking across federal agencies.

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