2024 In Higher Education: Biden Admin. Bureaucratic Botch Job
‘High school seniors and parents have already had to make college choices without crucial financial aid information. Working taxpayers are already footing the bill for the highest-earning segments of Washington Democrats’ base. And laws that enacted protections for women are already being used to violate those same protections.’
WASHINGTON, D.C. – U.S. Senate Republican Leader Mitch McConnell (R-KY) delivered the following remarks today on the Senate floor regarding higher education:
“Speaking of failure to discharge basic responsibilities, the Biden Administration’s Department of Education.
“Around the country, high school seniors and their parents are still reeling from delays and processing errors in a botched rollout of the Free Application for Federal Student Aid (FAFSA).
“Families have had to make tough decisions ahead of enrollment deadlines with incomplete information.
“One such parent described the frustration she and her daughter were facing back in April. Quote: ‘She’s supposed to decide by the end of this month and pay her housing deposit, but we can’t commit to anything until we know what the financials look like.’
“It certainly makes one wonder, what are all those bureaucrats at the Education Department up to, if they can’t complete a fundamental part of their job?
“Unfortunately, but unsurprisingly, the answer seems to be spending time and taxpayer dollars on activities that run contrary to the Department’s mandate.
“The first of these activities, as I’ve discussed before, is student loan socialism.
“Of course, the Supreme Court made it clear that this scheme is illegal. And basic common sense tells us it’s also profoundly unfair – both to folks who opted not to pursue a four-year degree and to those who worked through college and paid their own bills.
“But President Biden has continued, undeterred. Last month, his Administration proposed a new rule to allow the Secretary of Education to cancel additional student debt for certain borrowers. It’s estimated that this will cost taxpayers nearly $150 billion dollars.
“But the Department’s illegal nonsense doesn’t stop there. Unelected bureaucrats are also trying to rewrite Title IX of the Civil Rights Act.
“The Biden Administration apparently wants to take a law that was designed to promote equal opportunities for women in education and make it do the exact opposite.
“This rule would require states and educational institutions to abandon biological sex as the determinant in program decisions and use so-called ‘gender identity’ instead.
“And institutions that refuse to comply would lose access to federal funding.
“More than 25 states have already sued to overturn this absurd rule. But the damage to the Department of Education’s reputation is already done.
“High school seniors and parents have already had to make college choices without crucial financial aid information.
“Working taxpayers are already footing the bill for the highest-earning segments of Washington Democrats’ base.
“And laws that enacted protections for women are already being used to violate those same protections.
“It’s shaping up to be a banner year for Biden Administration bureaucrats.”
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Related Issues: Education
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