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Riley Moore Questions Linda McMahon About Using Federal Money To Promote School Choice
Forbes Breaking News
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5/28/2025
At a House Appropriations Committee hearing prior to the Congressional recess, Rep. Riley Moore (R-WV) questioned Education Secretary Linda McMahon.
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00:00
More. Thank you, Mr. Chairman, and thank you, Madam Secretary, for being here.
00:07
Typical line of questioning. Someone's a little obsessed with one guy. That's interesting.
00:11
It's every hearing now. So thank you so much for being here. I did want to, just for the committee,
00:18
highlight a program that I stood up in the state of West Virginia. It's called the Hope Scholarship
00:23
Program when I was state treasurer of West Virginia. It was actually one of the most expansive ESA
00:28
programs in the country. We offered our per-pupil student funding formula, state money, obviously,
00:37
to children that decided to leave the public education system. And this has been a tremendous
00:45
win for the state of West Virginia. They can either choose homeschool or they could choose some private
00:52
school institution. And we have seen, just since I started that program in 2021, our academic achievement
01:05
in our test scores have increased by 3%. So a state like West Virginia, that's a really big deal.
01:12
Now, our state, my state of West Virginia, we are one of the poorest states in the country.
01:18
So we receive per capita more federal funding than most of the states, compared to, say,
01:25
like a wealthy state like Connecticut or New Jersey or Massachusetts. They're not receiving the same
01:29
type of money that we are because we struggle in this. Now, that said, we spend more per capita
01:36
on our kids on education than most states in America. And it's been a failure. And ever since the
01:45
Department of Education has been instituted, we've seen academic achievement just plummet year after
01:53
year, every year, it gets worse. Now, one of my questions for you is, as you talk about national
02:01
school choice, which I am a huge advocate for, how would you see the states being able to access those
02:09
federal dollars? For example, the HOPE scholarship program, which is obviously a law at the state
02:17
level, how could we pull down those federal dollars to have those students that have elected for school
02:24
choice to be able to have access to those as you start to, God willing, wind down this department
02:31
and return education to its rightful position back to the states?
02:34
Well, thank you very much. And I certainly agree that states should have the opportunity to do
02:40
that. What we are looking at more, and as we discussed a little bit before, in winding down
02:46
some of the programs and doing block granting to governors of states to take a look at some of
02:51
the programs that they need to fund. And I have talked to so many governors who have said that they
02:58
would welcome the opportunity to have funds block granted to them because they know what's best for
03:03
their state. They know working with the local superintendents what is needed. So if the money
03:08
was block granted with fewer strings, less regulation for those governors, they've indicated
03:14
how successful they believe they would make their states. Now, I'm the first one to admit some
03:18
governors are going to do a better job at this than others. Some state superintendents are going to do a
03:22
better job than others. But look at some of the programs you've already talked about. The HOPE
03:26
scholarship program, programs in Oklahoma, some of the programs in other states as well. These are done
03:33
by innovative governors and innovative superintendents. This is not the Department of Education coming in
03:38
and say, hey, you ought to try this. You ought to do it. No. It's because these people in these states
03:44
look at their programs and look at what they need, and they'll allocate that money here.
03:50
If a grant comes with strings that say you have to spend the money here, and the governor says, man,
03:56
if I just had that money and I could put it over here, I could have a lot more effect. Or that state
04:00
superintendent, that chief of education working with the students, I want to give them that
04:04
opportunity. The president wants to make sure that governors and states have the opportunity
04:09
to compete with one another, but to service the people in their state the way that they see best.
04:16
Well, thank you for that answer. And myself, my children, we use the HOPE scholarship. We've elected
04:23
for school choice. My kids are in Catholic school, just like Representative Bice here. Her children run as well.
04:30
But it's not so much about my kids that I want to highlight, but in the southern coalfields of West
04:36
Virginia, we've had children driving with their parents an hour, hour and a half to just be able
04:42
to access better educational opportunities and outcomes for their kids. And the thing that drives
04:48
me crazy is so many people are like, oh, this is a giveaway to the rich so they can send their kids
04:52
to private school. Newsflash, they're already sending their kids to private school if they're rich.
04:56
It's not really a determinant factor. This is going to raise a lot of families to me out of poverty
05:02
and give them choice that they would otherwise not have. So please, anything you can do to help us be
05:10
able to have access to those federal dollars through these school choice programs at the state level
05:15
would be hugely beneficial. And I yield back.
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