Jeff Merkley Asks Education Secretary Linda McMahon Point Blank: 'Why Have You Canceled Mental Health Grants?'

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During a Senate Appropriations Committee hearing on Tuesday, Sen. Jeff Merkley (D-OR) asked Education Secretary Linda McMahon about cuts to mental health grants.

Transcript

00:00kids to go to college. We've not changed loan programs. I'm going to turn to mental health

00:05because I'm very concerned about mental health. A few years ago, before COVID, when I was in a

00:12meeting with student counselors in eastern Oregon, a very rural area, and they said, you know, we're

00:17seeing kids come in in our early ages and they're acting out much more than they ever did before.

00:22And I said, well, is this because was there a factory that just shut down here or a mill that

00:26just shut down or an infusion of new wave of meth? And they said, no, those are all, the economy's a

00:33factor, drug use is a factor in our community, but no, those aren't new. And one of the counselors

00:37said, this is what's new. And they pulled out their cell phone. This is what's new. Kids are coming in

00:43with far less understanding and ability of how to sit in a collaborative environment like a classroom

00:49and how to communicate with other children and teachers. There is a book that just came out.

00:56My staff happened to put it on my desk this morning. So I'm going to ask for chapter five to be put into

01:02the record, The Anxious Generation. And I was paging through it. And under chapter five, it notes that

01:10there are four factors in which these cell phones are affecting our children profoundly. Social

01:17deprivation, sleep deprivation, attention fragmentation, and screen addiction. I'd really

01:23encourage you to take a look at this. I've been urging the department to seriously look at the

01:28issue of how childhood is changing. And childhood is changing because of technology in ways that are

01:36really compromising the ability of our education enterprise to work well. But this brings to my

01:42point about why you have canceled mental health grants for our schools. We have five schools in Oregon that

01:50got grants to have more mental health counselors, and you have canceled them. Why have you canceled mental

01:56health grants in the middle of an enormously challenging time for our students? We've not

02:02canceled mental health grants. We've said we're not continuing them after this year. Because we're going to allow

02:08those programs to be rebid and to take a different look at them. But they have not been canceled. And I

02:12couldn't agree with you more about cell phones. Governor, there is governors of several states who have

02:18said bell to bell, there are not going to be cell phones in the classroom. And they are seeing upticks

02:22in their literacy and in also in the social interaction. So therefore, states have the abilities at very

02:29different levels to go ahead and make decisions and to put their policies in place that can be effective.

02:34Five, then the five grants that you have canceled that you are unaware of in Oregon, you will restore

02:40those five grants? We've not canceled. We're not continuing those grants. So if you discover that you

02:45have have actually canceled grants that were already awarded, you will undo those cancellations? I would

02:51like to get back to you on that. I do not believe we've canceled any grants. We're not continuing, but we

02:57will rebid them. Oh, you'll rebid them, meaning you're canceling them, but you'll rebid them.

03:02We are not continuing them. We haven't canceled them. Okay, well. We are continuing. Well, I've got

03:09five schools that have received letters from you or your department saying their grants, their mental

03:14health grants have been canceled. They worked very hard to apply for those grants. Canceled or not

03:17continued. That they've been canceled, the grants that they have received for their programs. I will

03:22look into that and get back to you. Obviously, when you get a grant, it's for work you're doing from here

03:26forward. So if not continuing means as of today, we're not funding it, then you canceled the grant. No, you can

03:32rebid the grant, you can recompete the grant, and you can have different aspects of it. Is that what you're

03:36doing? You said the grants you got, we're ending them and we're taking them back, but we're going to

03:40re-recompete them? I said we are not continuing them after this year. We will have a rebidding process to re-look at

03:47those grants. Well, I strongly encourage you to understand how the changes you're making are

03:52hurting ordinary kids across this country who may have aspirations and those aspirations may not all

03:59require going to college, but many of those aspirations can be well served by higher education

04:03and you shouldn't be putting obstacles in their path. Thank you. Senator Merkley, if you look,

04:08what we're doing has not worked. All right. So we're continuing to throw money at things that are

04:13not being successful. So we are trying to look appropriately at all of our grants and how the

04:18Department of Education is operating. Madam Chair, I'll just say those programs have been

04:22successful. If you'd taken the very effort to read the evaluations of the TRIO programs,

04:26you wouldn't be here making that argument today. All right. Let's, uh,

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