Ranking member warns proposed cuts and agency actions could dismantle Department of Education; witnesses urge continued research and grants
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Summary
Ranking Member Rosa DeLauro and witnesses told a House appropriations subcommittee that recent executive actions and proposed funding cuts threaten education research and workforce programs; panelists said evidence‑based funding and targeted grants sustain successful community college and apprenticeship programs.
Ranking Member Rosa DeLauro used opening remarks at the subcommittee hearing to warn that recent executive actions and proposed appropriations cuts threaten core federal education functions and workforce programs.
DeLauro criticized an apparent pause in funding and contract activity at the Department of Education’s Institute of Education Sciences (IES), saying the loss of that work would leave parents, educators and policymakers “in the dark.” She framed broader executive proposals — including plans discussed in Project 2025 materials and related administrative actions — as a risk to programs that support low‑income students and workforce training. “They are taking a wrecking ball to the welfare of children in school and their ability to learn. It is unconscionable,” DeLauro said.
DeLauro and other members cited specific cuts described in the House majority’s FY2025 appropriations proposals during the hearing: a reported cut to WIOA state grants and youth job training, reductions to adult job training and registered apprenticeships, and steep reductions or eliminations of campus‑based aid programs, Federal Work‑Study and childcare access for student parents. DeLauro listed numeric proposals during the hearing, including a cited $1.7 billion cut to WIOA state grants and the elimination of funding for certain student‑parent childcare programs; she attributed the figures to the majority’s appropriations proposal presented to the committee.
Mary Alice McCarthy, senior director of the Center on Education and Labor at New America, told the subcommittee that halting IES research and cutting workforce or community college funding would be “deeply self‑defeating.” McCarthy said federal research funded through IES underpins evidence‑based practices that community colleges use to improve completion and workforce alignment, and she urged Congress to maintain or increase investments in career and technical education, including tripling Perkins funding in a proposal she described in written testimony.
Witnesses including McCarthy and college leaders said targeted federal grants and Perkins funds have enabled colleges to create new programs, build employer partnerships, staff advising and career services, and adopt data systems that track student progress. McCarthy noted that past one‑time and targeted funds, including pandemic aid and Strengthening Community College Training Grants, supported program development and partnerships.
Committee members and witnesses framed the funding issue both as a matter of program effectiveness and constitutional authority, with some members urging Congress to exercise its appropriations power to preserve programs and research the panel said are necessary for workforce development.
No formal legislative decisions were made at the hearing; members and witnesses used the session to press for preserving evidence‑based research and grant funding that panelists said are widely used to improve community college completion and labor market alignment.