Hochul and Gillibrand’s DOE Complaints Distract from Fiscal Responsibility and Labor Union Issues

Attention New Yorkers: your representatives want you to understand that due to their disdain for Trump (and their allegiance to the teachers’ unions), you are the ones who must bear the burden.

This, at least, is the underlying message of the recent complaints from Governor Kathy Hochul and Senator Kirsten Gillibrand regarding President Trump’s proposals to eliminate the federal Department of Education.

The Department of Education sends $5.5 billion to New York annually.

“If that funding is at risk, local governments will lose that money and will have to increase taxes,” Hochul lamented.

However, Trump is discussing slashing the bureaucracy, not cutting support for schools or students.

It shouldn’t be impossible for Hochul to discover any alternative savings in her budget, especially given the state-only education expenditure, which (according to the Citizens Budget Commission) for the 2024-25 school year will reach $39 billion — exceeding the GDP of numerous nations.

The complaints are particularly amusing considering Hochul has completely backed down from her plans to reduce school spending in districts with declining enrollment.

In reality, it’s not that New York lacks the ability to save billions on school aid through sensible measures: After all, statewide school spending currently exceeds $36,000 per student, far exceeding the national average.

The fact is that Hochul and her fellow Democrats simply do not want to implement those changes.

They would prefer to impose further hardships on everyday New Yorkers rather than risk upsetting the teachers’ unions, forcing hardworking families to shoulder the burden for the political expediency of our leaders.

This entire situation calls into question Gillibrand’s emotional assertion that “the Trump administration is robbing our children, our teachers, and our families to provide tax breaks for the wealthy.”

Let’s be clear: the federal DOE is an overextended, ineffective agency, and its elimination is long overdue.

That Hochul and Others are exploiting Trump’s entirely valid criticism of it as a reason for yet again putting the financial burden on the public is truly deplorable.