Durbin Slams DeVos For Cut To Special Olympics, Delayed Relief For Defrauded Students

thank you very much mr. chairman Madam Secretary there's been some press reports about your testimony yesterday related to the Special Olympics and I hope we can get that clarified here did you personally approve the elimination of the 18 million dollars from your budget to help the Special Olympics well senator as you know budget process within the administration is a collaborative one and it's been my responsibility to present the budget here on behalf of the administration the President's budget as I said then and I'll say again this we had to make tough choices and decisions around the budget priorities and we elected to hold harmless title one and IDE a funding and funding for English language learners knowing that that's going to really reach the the greatest number of students and let me just be very good do you personally approve this just I think it yes or no will do the 18 million dollar cut of the funding for Special Olympics no I didn't personally get involved in that I want to tell you whoever came up with whoever came up with that idea at OMB gets at a Special Olympic gold medal for insensitivity to think that we can't spend 18 million dollars to support this dramatically successful venture which incidentally started in Chicago Illinois and now reaches countries all across the world millions of young people with disabilities and let me get let me tell you an area where I think he can save some money for Special Olympics and other worthy causes we know that 9 percent of post-secondary students go to for-profit colleges and universities do you know what percentage of the student loan defaults total student loan defaults in the United States involves students from for-profit colleges and universities senator let me just comment on Special Olympics and you know I love Special Olympics myself I have given a portion of my salary to Special Olympics I hope all of this debate encourages lots of private contributions to Special Olympics so let's not use disabled children in a twisted way for your political narrative it's is just disgusting and it's shameful madam secretary let me tell you what eliminating 18 million dollars out of an 80 pound 70 or 80 billion dollar budget I think is shameful - I'm not twisting it I asked you to answer yes or no and you said that you did not personally approve it yes or no answer well it certainly is as far as I'm concerned someone has to accept responsibility for a bad decision back to the for-profit schools do you know what percentage of the student loan defaults in the United States are students from for-profit schools thirty-four percent thirty four percent nine percent of the students coming out of post-secondary schools go to for-profit schools but 34 percent of all student loan defaults are the students from these schools they're being asked to pay too much for worthless training and education they drop out heavily in debt with nothing to show for it or end up completing the course and again can't find a job to pay off their loans so let me ask again as Senator Murray has don't you have a heart when it comes to a hundred and forty thousand of these victims students who are trying through the board defense rule to get relief from the fraud that was perpetrated on him by these schools why is it taking so long for your department to give these students a break senator no student should be defrauded and if fraud is involved there are consequences and there will be consequences but we should not be judging institutions by their tax status and let's be very honest here there are bad reserves on both sides of the equation but 34 percent of the student loan defaults come from this one branch of tax status for-profit colleges really should not be judging by tax status but by results results for students what are the results of 34 percent our default let's talk about the ones that are doing a great job for students such as Monroe College in New York six thousand Spears six thousand students original nonprofits that are doing a bad job they should be held accountable as well but I will tell you something to bribe Monroe has six thousand in order to in order to improve their u.s. news and Ron ro college has six thousand students there are a hundred and forty thousand victims student waiting for your department to give them relief so they can get on with their lives you've got a court order now saying don't delay it and Senator Murray has said why are you waiting why don't you help these students they need some help right now from this borrower defense rule let me ask you one last question do you know the teacher shortage across this country and the damage it's causing in school districts I know that teachers need to be honored and respected and elevated or your work our disposal and that's why our proposal does just that gives them opportunities hope your work career and gives them opportunities to develop themselves I will just tell you that there is a shortage I've seen it in my own state this last week in Decatur Illinois in Zion Illinois and I asked the principals what's the problem they said we can't pay them enough money to keep them and they're burdened with student debt your unwillingness in your department to deal with the public service loan forgiveness program is destroying an incentive and now you want to eliminate the program that is a program and incentive for those to go on and become teachers with the prospect that after 10 years their student loans will be forgiven you won't help these students you haven't approved any of their applications and now you want to eliminate that program how did that help us sir every single student that has qualified for that program is being how many would that be earning accordingly remember within your program the students that have applied haven't yet qualified how about those who have we are very much at honoring the both the spirit and the requirements of that program and now you want the program

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Length: 6min 4sec (364 seconds)

Published: Thu Mar 28 2019