Good evening, good evening. It's nice to see all of you today on this beautiful, glorious sunny evening in Washington DC with the thunder and lightning rolling around us.
Can I ask you a question on the Office of Civil Rights? Obviously, the Office of Civil Rights has opened a bunch of investigations into anti-Semitism, Title 9 violations. What happens to the Office of Civil Rights under this executive order? Will the Office of Civil Rights continue its work investigating schools that violate the law?
Well, certainly the executive order did not specify what happens with any of the departments within education. So, we are looking at where best those departments could be located. I mean, the Department of Justice already has a civil rights office, and I think that there is an opportunity to discuss with Attorney General Bondi about locating some of our civil rights work there.
Do you have a comment on the lawsuit being filed by Randi Weingarten? Comment on the lawsuit being filed by Randi Weingarten. This is the person who said that she'll only care about students once they start paying union dues. Does she have any standing suing the administration?
Well, I've not had any conversation yet with Randi Weingarten. I know about last week, about a week ago, her comment was the president wanted to take education away from children, which clearly is not the case. He wants to improve education for children. He wants to get those dollars, even more dollars back to the states without the bureaucracy of Washington.
So, that's our plan; that's our goal. I'd be glad to meet with her and talk to her about that.
Madam Secretary, can you talk about what will happen to some of the employees who are part of the DOE, as you kind of shrink the department, ultimately looking to close the department, what will happen to these employees? Can you discuss what the next plan will be for all these employees?
Well, thank you so much for asking that because last week we had -- we did um terminate almost half of the Department of Education. We did it thoughtfully, we looked to see where duplication was in the departments. We wanted to make sure that we were just cutting fat from the bureaucracy -- the inward facing things, not the outward facing servicing that we do to students and to states.
So, we did it very carefully. We wanted to make sure that we complied by the law. But they had -- those that were terminated will get three months of full pay and benefits. And after that, under the rules of the civil service, they also will get a severance package, which is very -- much more generous than it would be in the private sector.
And then also there's accrued sick leave and unused leave that they will also get paid for. So, you'd like to provide as soft an off ramp as you can because, after all, it's not easy and I've done it in the private sector too. It's really not easy to terminate people.
Madam Secretary, President Donald Trump wants to send education back to the states. Education originally, but it begins in the home with the nuclear family and the nuclear family, and this country has been decimated. We've got a fatherless crisis going on in this country, far too many kids are growing up without a father.
And all the statistics show that kids that grow up with a father in the home do far better in education. So, I think if we can strengthen our nuclear families again in this country that would really help the Department of Education or the education in this country.
Well, unfortunately I can't do anything about reestablishing the nuclear family. I would hope that we would see more of that happen because statistics really do support exactly what you've said. Nuclear families are key. And when you have parental involvement in children's education and how they're growing up, we see those results.
And a lot of charter schools around the country actually invite parents to come in and some of them actually require parents to sign a contract that they're going to support their students when they get home. So, the more parent involvement we can have, the better it is for children for many of the things that they're doing, not just education.
I just spoke with one of the governors who was at the signing of the executive order, and he said he would like to see the money that's coming into the states from the DOE to come in with no strings attached. How do you view such a request?
Well, first of all, you said the DOE, that could be interpreted to be the Department of Energy.
Pardon me. The Department of Education.
So, we're the Department of Education. And I think always, governors would always like to see funding without any strings attached. But that is the goal of the president too is to have as few strings and regulation as possible. Right now, for about every dollar of funding that goes into the states, one statistic is shared with me, is that $0.47 is spent in regulatory compliance.
The president would clearly like to see that money being used to educate our students and that's the goal.
Thank you.