Riley Moore Questions Linda McMahon About Using Federal Money To Promote School Choice

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At a House Appropriations Committee hearing prior to the Congressional recess, Rep. Riley Moore (R-WV) questioned Education Secretary Linda McMahon.

Transcript

00:00More. Thank you, Mr. Chairman, and thank you, Madam Secretary, for being here.

00:07Typical line of questioning. Someone's a little obsessed with one guy. That's interesting.

00:11It's every hearing now. So thank you so much for being here. I did want to, just for the committee,

00:18highlight a program that I stood up in the state of West Virginia. It's called the Hope Scholarship

00:23Program when I was state treasurer of West Virginia. It was actually one of the most expansive ESA

00:28programs in the country. We offered our per-pupil student funding formula, state money, obviously,

00:37to children that decided to leave the public education system. And this has been a tremendous

00:45win for the state of West Virginia. They can either choose homeschool or they could choose some private

00:52school institution. And we have seen, just since I started that program in 2021, our academic achievement

01:05in our test scores have increased by 3%. So a state like West Virginia, that's a really big deal.

01:12Now, our state, my state of West Virginia, we are one of the poorest states in the country.

01:18So we receive per capita more federal funding than most of the states, compared to, say,

01:25like a wealthy state like Connecticut or New Jersey or Massachusetts. They're not receiving the same

01:29type of money that we are because we struggle in this. Now, that said, we spend more per capita

01:36on our kids on education than most states in America. And it's been a failure. And ever since the

01:45Department of Education has been instituted, we've seen academic achievement just plummet year after

01:53year, every year, it gets worse. Now, one of my questions for you is, as you talk about national

02:01school choice, which I am a huge advocate for, how would you see the states being able to access those

02:09federal dollars? For example, the HOPE scholarship program, which is obviously a law at the state

02:17level, how could we pull down those federal dollars to have those students that have elected for school

02:24choice to be able to have access to those as you start to, God willing, wind down this department

02:31and return education to its rightful position back to the states?

02:34Well, thank you very much. And I certainly agree that states should have the opportunity to do

02:40that. What we are looking at more, and as we discussed a little bit before, in winding down

02:46some of the programs and doing block granting to governors of states to take a look at some of

02:51the programs that they need to fund. And I have talked to so many governors who have said that they

02:58would welcome the opportunity to have funds block granted to them because they know what's best for

03:03their state. They know working with the local superintendents what is needed. So if the money

03:08was block granted with fewer strings, less regulation for those governors, they've indicated

03:14how successful they believe they would make their states. Now, I'm the first one to admit some

03:18governors are going to do a better job at this than others. Some state superintendents are going to do a

03:22better job than others. But look at some of the programs you've already talked about. The HOPE

03:26scholarship program, programs in Oklahoma, some of the programs in other states as well. These are done

03:33by innovative governors and innovative superintendents. This is not the Department of Education coming in

03:38and say, hey, you ought to try this. You ought to do it. No. It's because these people in these states

03:44look at their programs and look at what they need, and they'll allocate that money here.

03:50If a grant comes with strings that say you have to spend the money here, and the governor says, man,

03:56if I just had that money and I could put it over here, I could have a lot more effect. Or that state

04:00superintendent, that chief of education working with the students, I want to give them that

04:04opportunity. The president wants to make sure that governors and states have the opportunity

04:09to compete with one another, but to service the people in their state the way that they see best.

04:16Well, thank you for that answer. And myself, my children, we use the HOPE scholarship. We've elected

04:23for school choice. My kids are in Catholic school, just like Representative Bice here. Her children run as well.

04:30But it's not so much about my kids that I want to highlight, but in the southern coalfields of West

04:36Virginia, we've had children driving with their parents an hour, hour and a half to just be able

04:42to access better educational opportunities and outcomes for their kids. And the thing that drives

04:48me crazy is so many people are like, oh, this is a giveaway to the rich so they can send their kids

04:52to private school. Newsflash, they're already sending their kids to private school if they're rich.

04:56It's not really a determinant factor. This is going to raise a lot of families to me out of poverty

05:02and give them choice that they would otherwise not have. So please, anything you can do to help us be

05:10able to have access to those federal dollars through these school choice programs at the state level

05:15would be hugely beneficial. And I yield back.

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