Chair Lee opens DOE FY27 executive budget hearing

All right.

Welcome, welcome, everyone.

I think we are good to go.

So good afternoon and welcome to the second FY27 Executive Budget Hearing for the day, focused on the Department of Education.

I'm Councilmember Linda Lee, and I'm pleased to be joined by my colleague, Councilmember Eric Dinowitz, who is the Chair of the Committee on Education.

And we have been joined by our speaker, Julie Menon, Deputy Speaker Williams, Council Members Lewis, Brewer, Wong, Marano, Felder, Hudson, Ressler, Farias, Joseph, Maloney, and Shulman.

Sure, Felder.

Okay.

And Councilmember, oh, Councilmember De La Rosa, and did I say Mealy?

I saw her earlier.

Councilmember Mealy, just in case.

Okay.

So welcome, Chancellor Kamar Samuels, and thank you all for joining us today to answer our questions.

Special shout out to Daniel Junta, sorry, and Deputy Chancellor Foti.

Sorry, all of you guys.

Okay, I'll stop.

Okay.

Now I'm going to get myself in trouble.

On May 12, 2026, the administration released the executive financial plan for FY26-30 with approved FY27 budget of $124.7 billion.