In case you missed it, former Secretary of Education and DNC People’s Cabinet Member Miguel Cardona was today’s guest on the Democrats’ Daily Blueprint, where he talked about the Trump administration’s all-out attack on education.

Today, millions of Americans who enrolled in President Biden’s SAVE Act program will start to see interest accrue on their loans, and in less than three years, the program will cease to exist — all because of Donald Trump. 

WATCH

You can find highlights from the conversation below: 

On how the SAVE program improved the lives of millions of borrowers:  

Sec. Cardona: “The SAVE program was intended to address the fact that, back then, over a million people were going into default every year. So in order to get people to successfully repay their loans, we created the SAVE plan, and what that did was, in essence, lower the percentage of their disposable income that had to go to loans. We know prices have gone up. People can pay less, unfortunately, in order to make ends meet. 

“So what you’re going to find now is that people are just going to go into default, and that’s going to ruin their history, their credit history, and their credit and also make it less likely that these loans ever get paid off at all. So we were trying to get people to be successful in paying off their loans. 

“Two things: the percentage of disposable income went from 10% to 5% and then the other thing is, it went after this interest that just inflated, right? So we wanted to cap that, so that people are not paying just interest for the rest of their lives.”

On Trump’s plans to shut down the Department of Education:

Sec. Cardona: “The Department of Education is, first and foremost, a civil rights agency. It protected the rights of students across the country — you know, the 50 million students in our schools. So what you, what you’re doing, in essence, is taking away those safeguards that protect students with disabilities, ensure that students that are receiving Title I dollars, 26 million students across the country, that benefit from that [and] get what Congress intended.”

Sec. Cardona: “What you’re going to find is that states are now going to be scrambling to figure out how to disperse dollars that the federal government did, and it’s not going to be done equitably, and there’s no oversight at the federal level, because they’re getting rid of everyone, to make sure that in places where kids can’t read, the money is not being used to create fancy, shiny football fields. So it’s — all kids are going to be impacted, but the kids furthest from opportunity are going to be impacted the most, and the most quickly.”

On the importance of running for local office: 

Sec. Cardona: “Decisions are made at the local level. Curriculum decisions are made at the local level. Policy decisions are made at the local level. So I would say, I would encourage folks to seek local office. Help your community. Stay true to your values. We need people right now that stand on principle that can work with everyone. It really shouldn’t be red or blue. 

“This is really about kids in this case, so we need people to stand up on behalf of students across our country and, and run for local board of education, and run for city council, run for mayor, support state leaders, and run for those positions to make sure that public education is still a good. It is the great equalizer. It was for me. 

“I came from a community that was 85% free and reduced lunch, and it was because of my local public elementary school that I had teachers that believed in me even more than I believed in myself at the time, and that allowed me to serve the president of the United States. So it’s possible through public education. All politics is local. Get involved.”