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Trump to Sign Executive Order to Close Education Department; Name, Image & Likeness Deals Open Doors for College Athletes. Aired 6- 6:30a ET
Aired March 20, 2025 - 06:00 ET
THIS IS A RUSH TRANSCRIPT. THIS COPY MAY NOT BE IN ITS FINAL FORM AND MAY BE UPDATED.
[06:00:04]
RAHEL SOLOMON, CNN ANCHOR: All right. That will do it for us today. Thanks for being with us here on EARLY START. Get those brackets filled out. I'm Rahel Solomon in new York.
CNN THIS MORNING starts right now.
AUDIE CORNISH, CNN ANCHOR: It is Thursday, March 20th. Here's what's happening right now on CNN THIS MORNING.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: It only hurts the most vulnerable: our children.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
CORNISH: The beginning of the end for the U.S. Department of Education. President Trump pulls the trigger today. What does that mean for kids, parents, and teachers?
Plus, this.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
ROBERT F. KENNEDY JR., SECRETARY OF HEALTH AND HUMAN SERVICES: The question is, should you cull those blocks?
(END VIDEO CLIP)
CORNISH: RFK Jr.'s risky idea to fight bird flu on farms: Let it spread. Can that actually work?
And more.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
SUBBARAYUDU KONANKI, SUDIKSHA'S FATHER: We are coming to the terms with the fact that our daughter has drowned.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
CORNISH: It is heartbreak for the family of a missing college student. They now want her to be officially declared dead. Why that might be difficult to do.
And later, March Madness mayhem actually means big money, and college athletes are finally getting a cut. But who's really winning?
Six a.m. here on the East Coast. Here is a live look at Nashville, where I used to live. Hello, all my friends in Nashville.
I'm Audie Cornish. Thank you all for waking up with me.
We're going to start today with the latest presidential executive order. President Trump is set to sign an order that would start the dismantling of the Department of Education.
CNN has learned he will direct Secretary Linda McMahon to take steps to, quote, "facilitate the closure of the department."
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
DONALD TRUMP, U.S. PRESIDENT: I've told Linda, "Linda, I hope you do a great job and put yourself out of a job." I want her to put herself out of a job.
I want the states to run schools, and I want Linda to put herself out of a job.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
CORNISH: To be clear, eliminating the department requires an act of Congress. But massive cuts, that is something the president can do on his own.
Earlier this month, the agency said it was getting rid of about half of its workforce. Teachers and unions say this is going to affect the most vulnerable students.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
DAVID STEINER, PRESIDENT, MONTGOMERY COUNTY EDUCATION ASSOCIATION: When they are attacking the Department of Education, they are attacking our students; and we are not going to stand for that.
JACK STANTON, ELEMENTARY SCHOOL PRINCIPAL: Educational opportunity is not government waste. It's something that is very central to what makes America great.
LT. GOV. JACQUELINE COLEMAN (D-KY): I think that these kids deserve the moon. And if there's any cuts that can be made to make government more efficient, it shouldn't be on the backs of special education students.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
CORNISH: Joining me now to discuss: Stephen Collinson, CNN politics senior reporter; Cari Champion, CNN contributor and host of "Naked Sports with Cari Champion"; and Sabrina Rodriguez, national political reporter for "The Washington Post." So, Sabrina, we actually heard from a union leader there. Are you
starting to see any movement or conversation among parents' groups, students' groups, like the people who will be affected by the laws that the U.S. Department of Education kind of enforces?
SABRINA RODRIGUEZ, NATIONAL POLITICAL REPORTER, "THE WASHINGTON POST": Absolutely. I think right now, there's a lot of anxiety around what exactly is going to happen here.
You know, this is a long-awaited executive order from the president. Weve been talking about what the fallout of this could look like for weeks.
CORNISH: Yes.
RODRIGUEZ: It is starting to register with folks that this is going to happen. But again, that impact of what exactly is coming is something that we're going to be talking about for the weeks and months ahead.
CORNISH: But there was a massive constituency for this one, I think, coming out of the pandemic: all of these parents who, certainly, ended up in Moms for Liberty, for example. And there are going to be governors, reportedly, at this signing.
So, Stephen, can you talk about that part of it? Like, they are answering a call.
STEPHEN COLLINSON, CNN POLITICS SENIOR CORRESPONDENT: To the president is doing something that Republican presidents have said ever since Ronald Reagan that they wanted to do.
CORNISH: Yes. I've been hearing this forever.
COLLINSON: You know, every time you go to a conservative political meeting, this is one of the big applause lines.
The difference is that most Republican presidents thought that they had to do it through Congress, because that's the law, as you pointed out.
I think the big question here is what happens to programs for lower income kids, the disabled kids. The president is not being quite truthful.
CORNISH: Yes. Special education.
COLLINSON: Right.
CORNISH: Bilingual education. Although, now that English is officially the language, maybe that doesn't matter. Yes.
COLLINSON: But the states already look after schools. It's all these extra programs.
And then there's the question of student loans. They say they're going to put it into the Commerce Department. If that happens, and we get to the summer, when all the new students are applying for their loans, there could be complete chaos if they don't do it properly.
[06:05:09]
CORNISH: Yes. So, to underscore what you just said, they're thinking of moving student loan administration, which was under the U.S. Education Department, under Commerce, so that will still get done.
Cari, you were nodding.
CARI CHAMPION, CNN CONTRIBUTOR: I was just -- I was curious because -- and this was my question for you. I think about when I was in college and I -- Pell Grants, all of those things really --
CORNISH: Yes, I did work-study.
CHAMPION: I did work-study. All of those things really mattered. OK, good. So were all on the same page. So, what -- where does that leave so many students who are -- who, in my case, really, truly needed it.
COLLINSON: Right. They have to make sure that they get people who know what they're doing. If it's going to the Commerce Department, are the people that administer these loans going, as well? Because if it's not done properly, it's going to be a real mess.
CORNISH: There's a lot at stake. You know, as we mentioned, it takes an act of Congress to do something like this. But obviously, when you look at where Republicans are in the party, they're not going to be pushing anything too hard.
Here's Alaska Senator Lisa Murkowski, what she talked about this week when she was talking about working with Donald Trump, and Elon Musk, and this DOGE effort, even when they make cuts that she disagrees with.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
SEN. LISA MURKOWSKI (R-AK): It may be that Elon Musk has decided he's going to take the next billion dollars that he makes off of Starlink and put it directly against Lisa Murkowski.
And you know what? That may happen.
That's why you've got everybody just like zip-lip, not saying a word, because they're afraid they're going to be taken down. They're going to be primaried.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
CORNISH: Cari Champion. Zip-lip.
CHAMPION: Zip-lip. Well, I do feel that way. I feel like we are in a -- you know, and I know you've heard this before, but in a, really, a real-life episode of "Handmaid's Tale." Everyone is just watching it. And we're all asleep, and no one is saying anything and doing anything. I'm just really so concerned about all the issues that are happening.
There is -- when you repeat this out loud to other people who maybe, say, live in other places, in another country, they don't understand what's happening. And neither do I.
Like, we're in the midst of --
CORNISH: Yes.
CHAMPION: So many things that are confusing. And I wonder -- I wonder why there's so much silence.
I asked a congressman the other day --
CORNISH: Well, I mean, she's saying that it' s basically fear. We. Sabrina, you've probably reported this at the post. There are lawmakers who have said that they get all kinds of threats.
But it was interesting to me, because Lisa Murkowski survived primaries before, to the point where she felt -- it seemed like she was kind of untouchable out of Alaska.
So, what do you make of, like, someone like her saying this, that the world's richest man now.
RODRIGUEZ: I mean, I think she has the weight that she can throw around in Congress on this and be honest, because she has had that position as a more centrist Republican. She has had that position as being someone who speaks out more.
I mean, when we're talking about crucial votes in the Senate, she is one of the --
CORNISH: She is.
RODRIGUEZ: -- only handful of people that people look to, to sway things.
CORNISH: She survived the Tea Party revolution, right? She survived those.
RODRIGUEZ: We're in a different place today, because we're talking about the world's richest man involved in U.S. politics. And he has no problem going on X throughout the day and launching attacks at lawmakers that he disagrees with and has openly talked about how he will primary anyone that disagrees with what Donald Trump wants to do.
So, were at a different point right now because, again, it's the information war. Its him on X talking about all of these things, and it's the fact that he has all the money to actually do it.
CORNISH: Yes. Stephen, do you see this as haunting this whole conversation?
COLLINSON: I mean, I think intimidation works. The new Republican -- well, the old Republican Party was people like Lisa Murkowski. The new Republican Party is Elon Musk and Donald Trump. And that's just the way it's going to be.
CORNISH: Yes. All right.
CHAMPION: Sabrina -- Sabrina, but -- can I say something about what she said?
CORNISH: Yes, yes. Sure.
CHAMPION: You said the information war. What I find interesting about how they've orchestrated it. So, if Elon Musk puts it on X, it goes from X to being retweeted by however many other people.
CORNISH: Yes, and ending up on podcasts.
CHAMPION: Joe Rogan to Theo Von. And the list goes on and on, and all the different people who are listening.
And so, the message is already clear who, quote unquote, "the problem is." And it doesn't always turn out to be him, because no one's saying anything.
CORNISH: Yes.
CHAMPION: It's the person he's going up against.
CORNISH: OK, group chat, stay with me, because we are going to talk about a ton of things this morning.
Coming up on CNN, the college student who vanished in the Dominican Republic. Her parents have made an agonizing decision. We're going to have the latest on that story.
Plus, paving paradise to put up a parking lot. President Trump takes a cue from Joni Mitchell.
And Democratic voters speaking out, demanding answers from the leaders that they elected.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: How many children were killed in Gaza alone yesterday?
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: That has nothing to do.
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Who bombed Gaza?
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Every single person here has something else to talk about.
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Who bombed Gaza?
(END VIDEO CLIP)
(COMMERCIAL BREAK)
[06:14:08]
CORNISH: It's 13 minutes past the hour. Here's your morning roundup. Some of the stories you need to know to get your day going.
The parents of the University of Pittsburgh student missing in the Dominican Republic, well, they now have a very emotional plea. They want an official declaration that their daughter is dead.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
KONANKI: We are coming to terms with the fact that our daughter has drowned. This is incredibly difficult for us to process.
(END VIDE CLIP)
CORNISH: Meantime, the man who is last known to have seen her alive has actually left the country after being detained for two weeks.
And busted. Federal prosecutors say the leader of the Crips in L.A. they're accusing him of stealing money from an anti-gang charity that he actually founded, basically to fund his alleged criminal operation. That's what they say.
He goes by the name Big U. Investigators say he ran a mafia-like crime empire. Other charges include murder and human trafficking.
[06:15:10]
President Trump previews plans to pave over the grass in the Rose Garden at the White House.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
TRUMP: The grass just -- it doesn't work. And we have a gorgeous stone and everything else. I think it's going to be beautiful. I think it's going to be more beautiful.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
CORNISH: The president says, since they have news conferences and other functions out there, the grass can be a problem when it's wet.
The plan is to turn it into a patio-style seating area like they have at Mar-a-Lago.
And you've got to see this: a buzzer beater. Cade Cunningham nails a three pointer with just 0.6 seconds left. His Detroit Pistons beat the Miami Heat.
And for the Lakers, Luka Doncic doesn't even have to be like on the court to sink a basket. He showed off this trick shot in the warm-up. Then, he went on to score 31 points against the Denver Nuggets.
Still coming up after the break, college athletes cashing in on their brands. Does this level the playing field or just create a new generation of power players? Plus, Robert F. Kennedy Jr.'s bold idea to fight bird flu on farms
doesn't fight it at all. So, what's the science of that?
Also, good morning, Baltimore. Today the NTSB is expected to release new information in that Key Bridge collapse investigation. We'll be watching for that. Stay with us.
(COMMERCIAL BREAK)
[06:20:42]
CORNISH: OK, March Madness is here. With that comes brackets, bragging rights, and the billion-dollar business of college sports. And that business looks a lot different than it did just a few years ago.
Thanks to NIL, student athletes can finally cash in on their own name, image and likeness. But the system has few guardrails, so who really benefits?
Well, this week I went on assignment and spoke with a former NCAA gymnast, Savannah Schoenherr, here to break it all down. How the system works, who's winning, what it says about the future of amateur athletics.
(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)
CORNISH: So how did you decide to enter the market, so to speak?
SAVANNAH SCHOENHERR, FORMER NCAA GYMNAST: I vividly remember July 1, 2021. I made a little graphic on Canva, and I was like, hey, my name is Savannah. I'm a gymnast at University of Florida, and I am open for, like, business. I don't know, like something along those lines.
CORNISH: Yes, yes.
SCHOENHERR: Like something super cheesy. But I posted it on my Instagram, just in hopes that brands would be like, OK, so she -- she definitely wants to jump headfirst into this NIL thing.
CORNISH: It's interesting, because for your generation, in particular, not just of athletes, but across the board, being a brand ambassador, right? Trying to get marketing opportunities. I feel like that's your native tongue.
SCHOENHERR: Definitely. Yes, I really leaned into the sports space. And so, I was reaching out to protein brands, supplement brands, protein bars, athletic clothing that I could wear outside of the gym. You know, just things that I felt really aligned with my brand. So, that was really cool for me.
CORNISH: Were you seeing other students get even more?
SCHOENHERR: You know, I was realistic. I was realistic. I was like, OK, the quarterbacks are getting cars. I'm personally not going to get a car. I'm good with a can of protein if that's what I get right now.
(END VIDEOTAPE)
CORNISH: Cari Champion is back with me. I mean, keep it realistic, right?
CHAMPION: I get a can of protein. You get a car. It all makes sense.
CORNISH: But here's the thing. So, what's happened with NIL is there has been the development of these things called collectives. Right? Which are -- it's a system where schools can use this entity to raise money, and then that entity can deal with the students. That entity can give money to the students, because schools are still banned from doing it.
How has this changed the economics of the sport? The vibe, even?
CHAMPION: You know, I think -- and I'll go back to when I was in college. I always reference stories just about the athletes that were around me. Ed O'Bannon, probably the originator of wanting to get paid for his name, image and likeness, a basketball player at UCLA.
I always thought to myself, it's unfair that they don't get any sort of compensation.
CORNISH: Yes. Because we should say NCAA March Madness. I think it generates $1.3 billion or something annually for them.
CHAMPION: And they were trying to operate it as a nonprofit. They were making money off these kids' name, image, and likeness. While some kids would say stories -- you'd hear these crazy stories about how they couldn't even eat lunch. because they had no money.
So, I like that the children are getting paid. I love that they --
CORNISH: You want that for the kids.
CHAMPION: I want that for the kids.
CORNISH: Yes.
CHAMPION: But the problem is the question of are we now watching amateur athletics? Are we now watching mini pros? Do they still care about the sport?
This has -- and it's the wild, wild West. Apropos, this has changed the game.
And I think, you know, if we had to look maybe five years from now, we're not going to see the type of basketball or, in her case, being a gymnast. We won't see that same love of the sport for those who really, really, truly are the big names.
CORNISH: Yes.
CHAMPION: Because they're looking about how much money they can get paid. Very rarely do they leave the NCAA and go into the pros and do really well. CORNISH: But like in Savannah's case, she was saying, gymnasts, you
know, you really only have until your mid-20s before you're kind of out of the sport.
Why shouldn't she have the ability to make that money and treat it like the job it is --
CHAMPION: She should, she should.
CORNISH: -- in the time that she has?
CHAMPION: You know what she should always -- I like the idea of her saying, when she started in 2021, she didn't know anything about it, when I knew everyone had been watching it.
But she deserves some sort of compensation. I think everyone does. But you have to give the money to the sports that matter.
So -- and when I say that matter, the sports that keep all the other programs going. Football and basketball keep all the other athletics programs going. Now, girl's -- women's basketball, keeping all the other programs going, making more money.
So, I see why someone like her would get a can of protein versus a car. That's just how it is.
But now these students are soon to be, I would say, in many cases, employees of the university. They have the right to make so much money now.
[06:25:06]
There -- there's one -- one student right now. And I know you're not talking football, but he's making $7 million a year.
CORNISH: Yes.
CHAMPION: Can you imagine a name, image, and likeness? Seven million dollars a year. Who knows if he'll ever go pro? Who knows as football player if he'll ever go pro.
CORNISH: If he needs to. Yes.
CHAMPION: If he even needs to.
CORNISH: Exactly, exactly.
Before I let you go, I feel like I have to ask an obligatory brackets question.
CHAMPION: Obligatory? Wait.
CORNISH: Feels like it's somewhere in the law.
CHAMPION: Have you -- have you filled one out yet?
CORNISH: yes. Let me check that off. OK. Your Final Four for women.
CHAMPION: OK, so I'll just make it quick. I think that UCLA, the women's basketball team, which they're No. 1 seed, overall No. 1 seed, will win it all.
On the men's side, this is really radical on my part.
CORNISH: OK.
CHAMPION: Not really. But I'm going with Michigan State. I feel like Tom Izzo has another run in him. And something about it tells me he might -- he might just make this -- this. And he can make it at least to the Elite Eight. But I feel like he might go all the way home here with this one.
CORNISH: OK.
CHAMPION: So, I'm excited.
CORNISH: Advanced brackets with Cari Champion.
But be sure to check out new episodes of "The Assignment." They drop every Thursday. You can hear more of our conversation with Savannah today.
Coming up on CNN THIS MORNING, why Ukraine's president thinks peace with Russia is possible this year after his phone call with President Trump. Is that the case?
Plus, a massive purge of Pentagon websites. We're going to talk about why content about war heroes and suicide prevention is being scrubbed.
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[06:30:00]
