Miguel Cardona Grilled By Joe Courtney On Student Loans’: We’re Going Back Into Recovery Mode’

4 months ago

On Tuesday, Rep. Joe Courtney (D-CT) questioned Department of Education Secretary Miguel Cardona on the increase in student loan debt durign a House Education and the Workforce Committee hearing.

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Transcript

00:00 I now recognize Mr. Courtney for five minutes.

00:05 Thank you, Madam Chairwoman and Secretary Cardona.

00:10 Thank you for your service and your presence here today.

00:13 So last Friday, the U.S. Department of Labor issued its monthly jobs report.

00:17 It showed that the U.S. economy added 175,000 new jobs, defying again all of the skeptics

00:23 and naysayers.

00:25 We are now at a place where for 27 consecutive months, the U.S. unemployment rate has been

00:33 below 4 percent.

00:34 That has never happened in the history of this country.

00:38 But even with those numbers, we still have 8.5 million job openings in the U.S. economy.

00:44 One of the things that I think is so unique about your life experience and what you bring

00:49 to the job is that you are a graduate of a career and technical high school, Wilcox Tech

00:55 in Meriden, Connecticut, who today, along with career and technical schools all over

01:01 the country, are on fire in terms of making sure that young people are able to take advantage

01:07 of these record number of job openings.

01:10 And one of your initiatives at the Department of Education has also been the Career Connected

01:14 High School program, which again is about getting not just trade schools but comprehensive

01:19 high schools into the act as far as connecting young people to the right skills and closing

01:26 the skills gap.

01:27 Can you again talk about, you know, progress with that program?

01:30 And certainly I've seen it in my district.

01:33 Thank you very much, Congressman.

01:35 You know, I talk about common ground in my remarks.

01:40 This is something that we should really be coming together.

01:44 For far too long in this country, we've had a four-year college or bust mentality that

01:48 I believe has underserved our students, our communities, and our country.

01:54 I am unapologetically in support of making sure that all of our high schools, not just

02:01 our technical schools, have pathway programs for students to explore careers, apprenticeships,

02:09 dual credit programs, so these students could get those credentials that they need to pursue

02:17 a four-year degree, which is what I did after a technical high school, or go into the workforce

02:22 or get a credential to get a high-skill, high-paying career.

02:28 We are committed to that at the Department of Education.

02:31 I often talk about an evolution of our schools.

02:34 The Career Connected Learning Grant, which is something that we're proposing, a $57 million

02:39 increase, would do just that.

02:41 I visited schools that have done a really good job, K-12 schools that are connected

02:46 with two-year colleges, oftentimes four-year colleges, and then industry partners or labor

02:52 partners for our students to have better access earlier to the trades, to the careers that

02:57 exist now.

02:58 This is something that I believe there's a lot of common ground on.

03:01 Our budget reflects interest in that, and we're committed to supporting it.

03:05 So I completely agree.

03:06 I have visited a high school in my district, Turtleette High School.

03:11 It's a public school up in Thompson, Connecticut, where, again, because of the Career Pathways

03:15 approach, which your program encourages, employers are getting into the game in terms of helping

03:21 fund these programs, particularly in the healthcare sector, because right now in that 8.5 million

03:27 job openings in healthcare, that is probably one of the most acute shortfalls that exist.

03:34 These kids are getting a chance to get certified as CNAs along with their diploma when they

03:38 graduate from high school.

03:40 Some will go right into work.

03:41 Others are actually going to go into nursing programs.

03:45 And so it's not like an either/or for higher education or going into the workforce.

03:49 But either way, you're really actually getting a meaningful sort of stimulus to students

03:55 in terms of just showing up for school, which, again, helps attendance, which, by the way,

04:01 is something we all should be encouraging.

04:03 I want to, again, just for the last minute, talk about the fact that when you took office,

04:07 the Department of Education was under numerous court orders for failure to obey the law for

04:11 public service loan forgiveness.

04:13 The prior administration had denied 98 percent of the applications for loan discharge under

04:19 the Public Service Loan Program, which was created with a bipartisan vote in the House

04:24 in 2007.

04:25 I was there.

04:26 And remember when George Bush, President Bush, signed that into law.

04:29 Again, as we, again, are going back into, you know, the recovery mode in terms of these

04:35 programs, can you talk about PSLF in terms of just, again, the progress that you've made?

04:40 Thank you for that question.

04:42 So just broadly speaking, Public Service Loan Forgiveness Program was one of the programs

04:47 that was broken, that wasn't being implemented the way you intended it to be in a bipartisan

04:51 fashion.

04:52 7,000 people got it in the last administration, 98 percent denial rate.

04:58 In three years, we've provided 875,000 borrowers.

05:02 These are teachers, nurses, veterans, with almost $62 billion in debt relief.

05:08 And I'll bring attention to a teacher that I spoke to in New York who took out a loan

05:12 for $30,000, ended up having to pay $60,000 because of interest.

05:17 Well, she received debt relief, and now she's able to buy a home.

05:21 These are the stories that are happening with Public Service Loan Forgiveness.

05:24 Because you're obeying the law, I yield back.

05:27 Thank you.

05:28 [Mr. Kucinich] Thank you, Mr. Courtney.

Miguel Cardona Grilled By Joe Courtney On Student Loans’: We’re Going Back Into Recovery Mode’

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