Democratic Rep. Rosa DeLauro of Connecticut, while fuming for six minutes about Department of Government Efficiency (DOGE) chair Elon Musk on Monday, accused the department of seeking to pull teachers from classrooms after it announced plans to review the Department of Education’s spending.
Democratic members of Congress tried to force their way into the Washington, D.C., headquarters of the Department of Education after DOGE was asked by President Donald Trump to uncover wasteful spending within the department. DeLauro unleashed a series of claims about DOGE and Musk during a Monday appearance on “Ana Cabrera Reports.”
“I think that first of all, what — I refer to Elon Musk as President Musk. And you’ve got the OMB Director Russ Vought. They’re responsible for the chaos. And it’s Project 2025. They’re stealing appropriations,” DeLauro told MSNBC host Ana Cabrera. “And to be honest, what people need to know is that taking the funds, stealing what are appropriated funds runs into the daunting power, the power of the purse, which rests with the Congress. And that is in the Constitution of the United States.”
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Only 25.4% of the Department of Education’s $268 billion budget goes to state and local governments to help fund schools, according to USAFacts.org.
“Do you think we’re not going to fight back on that issue? But I think it was prescient what President Trump said today. The USAID was just a skirmish,” DeLauro continued. “They’re going after the Department of Education and limiting people’s opportunity to get an education in this country. The dream of my parents, Irish, Italians, Polish, the entire, you know, parents want their kids to get the best of an education. And they’re going to — they’re going to deny it.”
The Trump administration plans cut large portions of the federal workforce, beginning with the United States Agency for International Development’s (USAID) after uncovering financial mismanagement within the agency and the promotion of far-left causes globally. Democratic members of Congress joined protests outside the headquarters of the USAID and the Treasury Department Tuesday after Department of Government Efficiency Co-Chairman Elon Musk announced plans to close down USAID after the agency initially resisted a DOGE audit.
DeLauro also previously threatened to shut down the federal government over the audits of agencies, which Trump promised during the 2024 presidential campaign, before she claimed DOGE would somehow force teachers out of classrooms.
“The courts, the American people, I would add the Congress, will not let this succeed and the courts are important and we will be in the House. While we do not have standing to sue, we are working with the organizations that are bringing suit,” DeLauro said. “We will file amicus briefs. So … the courts are critically important in this area. The other piece of that is the outrage of the American public. And when you think about there is the legal issue, but you have to think about what the, you know, what are the repercussions to American families?”
“You take education. You’re looking at denying people school lunches. You are taking the opportunity for a college education if you cut Pell grants, you cut student financial aid. There are a whole range of what these services do for the American public. That’s the word that has to get out. When you cut education, you cut 72,000 — when you cut Title I — 72,000 teachers nationwide are gone,” DeLauro continued. “Your kid may be in a classroom that doesn’t have a teacher. Special education for developmentally challenged kids, that will be cut. What happens to those kids? But again, it’s U.S. aid, it’s education.”
Under former President Joe Biden, the U.S. Department of Agriculture, which provides Food and Nutrition Service (FNS) funding for schools, threatened to deny funds for student lunches unless schools adopted policies that prevented discrimination on the basis of gender identity in 2022.
Trump has repeatedly voiced his concerns regarding education being outsourced to the federal government, and has suggested that states may be better equipped to manage the education of students.
“They rank 40 countries in education, we’re ranked dead last, but the good news is we’re number one in one category, you know what that is? Cost per pupil,” Trump told Fox News White House correspondent Peter Doocy during a Friday press conference.
The Department of Education only provides about 7.6% of the funds local schools use, USAFacts.org reported, while states provide about 45.7% and local governments provide roughly 44.9%. Despite an increase of 371.6% in funding to the Department of Education since fiscal year 1980, test scores have plummeted nationwide.
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