U.S. Senator Bill Cassidy, M.D., published a series of posts on September 18, 2025, addressing concerns about education standards, campus free speech, and rural hospital funding.
In his first post at 19:08 UTC, Cassidy referenced recent national education data and workforce preparedness. He wrote, “Recent @NAEP_NCES scores are the lowest in 30+ years. Only 1/3 of HS seniors are reading proficiently. Nearly 60% of employers say HS graduates aren’t job-ready. Students are leaving HS unable to read & unprepared for the workforce. We must act so children aren’t left behind.” The National Assessment of Educational Progress (NAEP) is a program that measures student achievement across the United States and has shown periodic declines in proficiency rates over recent years.
Later that day at 20:27 UTC, Cassidy commented on campus attitudes toward free speech: “When 1 in 3 students say violence is acceptable to silence speech, it betrays the Constitution and our country’s ideals. If students arrive with that view, universities should challenge that view. If they learned it there, the university has failed its mission.” Debates about freedom of expression have become increasingly prominent at U.S. universities amid national discussions about civil discourse and protest.
At 21:56 UTC on the same day, Cassidy addressed claims regarding rural hospital funding: “Remember when Democrats ran ads claiming that Republicans would shut down your rural hospital? Now they want to CUT the $50 billion Rural Hospital Fund Republicans created. We’re protecting patients & hospitals, they’re cutting and gutting.” Federal support for rural healthcare facilities has been a recurring topic in congressional debates as lawmakers discuss how best to maintain access to medical care in underserved regions.
Senator Cassidy represents Louisiana in the U.S. Senate and has been active on issues related to healthcare policy and education reform.
