Angela Morabito and Jason Altmire join to discuss the Trump administration's efforts to improve education in the U.S. and send power back to the states.

Washington

A panel featuring former officials and education advocates discussed the Trump administration's proposal to shift education control from the federal government to the states. The discussion highlighted concerns about the increasing number of students receiving disability accommodations at elite universities, the effectiveness of federal education spending, and the need for a 'hard reset' in the education system.

Panelists also addressed public skepticism about the value of four-year college degrees, citing high costs and poor job market outcomes for graduates. They advocated for greater investment in trade schools and state-led reforms, while emphasizing that federal civil rights protections for students with disabilities would remain in place even if the Department of Education were dismantled.

Trump admin pushes for education reset

Joining us now to discuss is Jason Altmyer is a former Pennsylvania congressman and CEO of Career Education Colleges and Universities. And Angela Moribito is a spokesperson for the Defense of Freedom Institute and former Department of Education Press Secretary. Welcome. Thank you for having us. Great to have you. I want to start with this. The Atlantic just reported that at elite schools like Yale and Harvard, more than 20 percent of undergraduates are now officially designated as disabled, most of them getting extra time on tests for ADHD, anxiety or depression. Some professors are saying this isn't anything new, calling it affluent students gaming the system, while advocates say it's just leveling the playing field. So, Jason, starting with you here as someone who champions career-focused education, what's your take? I would also add I'm a adjunct professor at Texas Tech teaching a class at a master's level, and I've seen this in action. It is true. This is a real issue. This isn't something that's made up. I would say there's a huge over-diagnosis of these type of issues, and then folks get special accommodations, extra time to take tests. They need different rooms, and their writing is judged in a different way. So I do believe that there are obviously people that do need special accommodations for various reasons related to disabilities, but I think this is an issue that we should look at with the over-diagnosis and the impact that it has on the higher education system more generally. So true, and as the White House moves to rework the old education bureaucracy, Education Secretary Linda McMahon warns that the real national emergency may be taking place inside our classrooms. We've really been incredibly hard at work making sure that we can return education to the states, and as I sit and listen to all the emergencies that we are addressing in this country from the economy to our borders to everything that we're doing, I would say, sir, that if we do not fix education in our country with this hard reset that you are expecting, I think the greatest national emergency we could face is our education. Now she's talking about a hard reset that pushes power out of Washington and back to the states. Is that the kind of shake-up our schools desperately need, Angela, because when you look at the growing number of individuals requesting accommodations that we just talked about, and now if we don't reset K-12, that number can explode to far greater than 20%. What say you? That's right. Federal control over education is a failed experiment. The Department of Education has had nearly half a century and upwards of $3 trillion to try and boost student achievement. But what's happened instead? We've continually lowered the bar for America's students. Teacher unions have been in large part behind that push. It hasn't worked. We have students now who are graduating with high school diplomas. They cannot read themselves. That is a crisis, and it proves it is time to try something new. Let's return education to the states. Yeah, well, speaking of that, let's bring this a little bit full circle. So if the education department is dismantled or doged, who's going to enforce the disability accommodation and the laws there, like the ADA, the idea that protects students with real needs, Congressman? I think the department would argue, the secretary and the president would argue, those accommodations are going to be judged to be appropriate will still occur just because the Department of Education no longer exists as an agency. Some of that could be done at the local level, as we just heard, and there is a national debate ongoing at whether or not school boards and parents are better suited to make decisions based upon curriculums and these type of issues than bureaucrats sitting in Washington, D.C. I think that's a legitimate argument to have. But just doing away with the physical Department of Education, both as a building and as an agency, doesn't mean that the special accommodations that are required for people with disabilities or those that really need them, that that program is going to go away. It will just be housed somewhere else. You know, Angela, I think he has a point. We have to get back to empowering the family, not the false family. You know who the false family is? Big brother, big sister, and Uncle Sam, right? We need to get rid of all of them and push the power back to the parents and let the states govern what is lawful within their borders and what is equitable to all students and not solely rely on the federal government. We need a paradigm shift in America. What say you? I could not agree more. And there's an important point here, which is even if Congress chose to abolish the Department of Education today, this morning, federal civil rights law that protects students with disabilities would still be on the books. That's not going anywhere. But states are the laboratories of democracy, and we've already seen great successes in a few of those places. Look no further than Louisiana and Mississippi that went all in on phonics instruction, and their test scores showed an improvement, right? It's no mystery what students need. And it's also no mystery that what students need is not more bureaucracy and red tape coming from the federal level. It's empowered families who can choose how and where their kids will learn instead of trapping them in failing government-run schools. Well, Kaysen, I want to get your take on the cost and really the worth of a four-year college degree. There's a new NBC News poll that shows that 63 percent of Americans now say a four-year college degree isn't worth the cost. And that's a massive flip from 2017 when opinions were split nearly 50-50. Let's take a listen. Most people have been priced out of college. Yes, yes. Most people. And if you can't afford it, you know, you want you telling your kids, listen, you need to go do something that, like they used to say in the old days, be an actor. No, no, you need to go do a real job. You know, and maybe that's what people are being told. So that's one take from Whoopi Goldberg. But even some college graduates are skeptical now, saying, why go to a school just to repay a loan back your entire life? So what's your take here? Because, yeah, repaying a loan your entire adult life seems like a major burden. You're seeing a lot of things come into focus here. There's really a harmonic convergence of issues all revolving around the fact that the jobs of the future are going to be driven by the skilled trades. When you look at where the demand is, we need to expand that pipeline to the blue collar professions, truck driving, welding, HVAC, the technicians for auto and aviation, those type of roles. And then the health care fields, nursing and the allied health professions. And you're seeing so much written and said about the difficulty students from four-year universities have to find jobs. And it's expected to get even worse in 2026. Record levels of new graduates that are unable to find employment in fields that are at risk of being displaced by AI in the future. So I think it's time as a nation that we take a look at educating and training our students for jobs that are going to be here five years from now rather than five years ago. You know, Angela, let's break down the numbers here. Let's just say a four-year degree is anywhere between the cost is anywhere between $100,000 and $150,000. And when you look at over the last year, the loan rate, interest rate that is, is about 6.5%. That's a lot of interest on a huge amount of principal. So when people look at that huge cost, whether you talk about college and some of these trade schools are equally as expensive, where do people go? Because when you look at the job market, it's kind of tough out there. What say you? I think kind of tough might be an understatement. When you look at how new grads are doing it in the job market, it's clear that their preparatory programs, whether that is a two-year college, a high school upskilling program, or a regular four-year degree, they're not giving students the skills that they need. So to me, the difference between an expense and an investment is the return you get. And more and more people are realizing that college is more of an expense, less of an investment, because they're not seeing the return on the money and time that they have spent to earn these credentials that might not really serve them well in the market. So I think this is a great time to see expansion in the trades. I'm pleased to see Secretary McMahon investing heavily in trade schools and programs that are going to make a meaningful difference in the lives of students by giving them skills they need to succeed. Exactly. You know, on that note, what I heard you say, we need more competition when it comes to professions. Thank you so much, Jason and Angela. Thank you.

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