Unknown

president of the United [Music] [Music] States well thank you very much thank you very much every and I'd like to start by saying that our country is doing very well things are as you can see doing quite well please sit down before we begin I uh just want to announce that I signed a proclamation a few moments ago honoring the 2 50th anniversary of Patrick Henry's famous speech to the second Virginia convention in which he declared very well-known very famous words Give me liberty or give me death has anyone heard the phrase I think most

of you have and moments ago I also signed an executive order to dramatically increased production of critical minerals and rare Earths it's a big thing in this country and as you know we're also signing agreements in various locations to unlock uh rare Earths and minerals and lots of other things all over the world but uh in particular Ukraine we're doing very well with regard to Ukraine and Russia and one of the things we are doing is signing a deal very shortly with h respect to rare Earths with Ukraine which they have tremendous value in rare

earth and we appreciate that and we spoke yester today with as you know President Putin and president zinski and we would love to see that come to an end and I think we're doing pretty well in that regard so hopefully we can save thousands of people a week from dying that's what it's all about they're dying so unnecessarily and U I believe we'll get it done we'll see what happens but I believe we'll get it done today we take a very historic action that was 45 years in the making in a few moments I will

sign an executive order to begin eliminating the federal department of education once in for [Applause] all and it sounds strange doesn't it Department of Education we're going to eliminate it and everybody knows it's right and the Democrats know it's right and I hope they're going to be voting for it because ultimately it may come before them but uh everybody knows it's right and we have to get our children educated we're we're not doing well with the with the world of Education in this country and we haven't for a long time and we're pleased to be

joined today by the woman who I chose because she's an extraordinary person uh and hopefully she will be our last Secretary of Education Linda McMahon Linda thank you thank you very much that's another interesting statement these is a very it's an interesting opening right but it's true and we people it's been amazing how popular this has been I tell people that this is what I'm doing today and they say oh that's it's about time everybody says it Republicans and Democrats have said it they're all saying it also with us are some terrific people Governor's Greg

Abbott Greg thank you very much much Governor Ronda Sanz thank you very much Ron Mike Brawn congratulations on your Victory Mike that was a big one Mike dwine thank you very much Mike Jeff Landry Jeff thank you very much Jeff Billy thank you Governors all Governors Brad little Brad thank you very much where are you Brad hi Brad Jim pilin thank you very much Jim and Kim Reynolds these are all people very interested in education and uh I even see Dan Patrick over there my friend Dan Patrick We're joined also by Representatives Tim Wahlberg and

uh Virginia Fox Rick Allen Mike guli um and again Dan Patrick thank you very much Dan you've been a great friend of ours and State Attorneys General Ken Paxton Ken I see you there Andrew Bailey Andrew what a job you've done Andrew what you have some good cases going you've done a great job thank you very much and co-founder of moms for Liberty Tiffany Justice she's been a hard worker thank you you thank you very thank you Tiffany when President Carter created the federal education department in 1979 it was opposed by members of his own

cabinet as well as the American Federation of teachers the New York Times editorial board and the famed Democrat Senator Daniel Patrick moan history has proven them right absolutely right after 45 years the United States spends more money on education by far than any any other country and spends likewise by far more money per pupil than any country and it's not even close but yet we rank near the bottom of the list in terms of success uh it's an amazing stat that's uh those are two stats you don't want the most money spent per pupil and

you're at the bottom of the list and that's where we are like it or not and we've been there for a long time 70% of eighth graders are not proficient in either reading or in math 70% 40% of fourth graders lack even basic reading skills can't read students in our Public elementary and middle schools score worse in reading today than when uh the department opened by a lot in Baltimore 40% of the high schools have zero students who can do basic mathematics not even the very simplest of mathematics I said give me your definition of

basic and they're talking about like adding a few numbers together despite these breathtaking failures the Department's discretionary budget is exploded by 600% in a very short period of time and employs bureaucrats in buildings all over Washington DC and as a former real estate person I will tell you I ride through the streets of Washington and it says Department of Education Department of Education I said how do you fill those buildings it's crazy what's happened over the years I'm pleased to report that after offering these federal employees two generous buyout options and they were very generous

and they're good people but they were very generous my Administration has initiated a reduction in force and we're already uh cutting numbers that were really surprising to a lot that we were able to do it so successfully and we've cut the number of bureaucrats in half 50% have taken office is great thank you under the action I'm taking today a small handful of Democrats and uh others that we have employed for a long time and there are some Republicans but not too many I have to be honest with you but the Department's useful functions and

uh such as and they're in charge of them pel grants Title One funding resources for children with disabilities and special needs will be preserved fully preserved they're all going to be so if you look at the pel grant supposed to be a very good program Title One funding and resources for children with special disabilities and special needs they're going to be preserved in full and redistribute it to various other agencies and departments that will take very good care of them and that's very important to Linda I know and it's very important to all of us

but beyond these core Necessities my Administration will take all lawful steps to shut down the department we're going to shut it down and shut it down as quickly as possible it's doing us no good we want to return our students to the states where just some of the governors here are so happy about this they want education to come back to them to come back to the States and they're going to do a phenomenal job you know if you um look Denmark Norway Sweden I have to tell you I give them a lot of credit

China's the top 10 and so we can't now say that bigness is making it impossible to educate because China is very big but you have uh countries that do a very good job in education and I really believe like some of the governors here today from states that run very very well including a big state like Texas but states that run very well are going to have uh education that uh will be as good as Norway Denmark Sweden and those top Finland those top countries that do so well with education I think they'll have they'll

do every bit as well and what do you think about that governor do you agree huh I think so Ron do you agree I think so Florida Iowa that's right I I really believe that they'll be as good as any of them and then you'll have some laggards and we'll work with them and we can all tell you who the laggards will be right now probably but let's not get into that but we'll work with them and we're going to make them uh they'll do a job I think they'll do a job and they'll go

to sections of the state for instance New York you'll have a Manhattan and you'll have a uh suffk County and you'll have Nassau County and you have Westchester County you'll do four or five or six of them you have Upstate New York and those counties I think are going to do very well and I think ultimately Manhattan should do very well but we'll break it down into sections and I think it'll be really really good and uh they're going to be probably the tougher ones but I think they have a chance to do really well

but we're going to be returning education very simply back to the states where it belongs and this is a very popular thing to do but much more importantly it's a common sense thing to do and it's going to work absolutely it's going to work and I can tell you from dealing with the governors and others in the state they want it so badly they want to take their children back and really teach their children uh individually uh probably the course will be half and the education will be maybe many many times better so we look

forward to this uh I want to just make one little personal statement teachers to me are among the most important people in this country and we're going to take care of our teachers and I don't care if they're in the union or not in the union that doesn't matter but we're going to take care of our teachers and I believe I believe the states will take actually better care of them than their than they are taken care of right now they'll work all sorts of systems and even Merit systems those great teachers are going to

be maybe a little bit better rewarded and maybe that's the way it should be but the states are going to make that decision but we're going to love and cherish our teachers along with our children and they're going to work with the parents and they're going to work with everybody else and it's going to be an amazing thing to watch and it's really going to be something special and Linda you're presiding over something that's so important and uh you're going to do a Fant fantastic job just like you have your whole life I know your

whole life I've been watching you I've been watching you for a long time she's had nothing but success so it's uh tremendous to have you and hopefully you won't be there too long but we're going to find something else for you Linda okay so uh this will conclude what we are uh talking about with respect to our most uh cherished group of people and that's our children we want to have our children well educated we want them to love going to school we have examples of it look at those beautiful brigh eyed faces those they

are so smart they're so smart and with that I'm going to come down and we're going to sign a very important document and we're going to be on our way people have wanted to do this for many many years for many many decades and I don't know no president ever got around to doing it but I'm getting around to doing it so thank you very much [Applause] [Applause] should I do this I do it I'll take this one out I had one I was very lucky I signed another document that turned out to be very

good for the country and I said let's use that same pen I don't know is anybody superstitious Ron are you superstitious let's use that same pen [Applause] okay come up can you come up just to say come on up very important big factor here luck good [Applause] luck thank you everybody very much good luck [Applause] [Music]