Randi Weingarten, president of the American Federation of Teachers, said the organization's members are uninterested in the possibility of abolishing the Department of Education.
In an interview with MSNBC on Sunday, the leader of the nation's second-largest teachers' union was asked for his reaction to President-elect Donald Trump's nomination of WWE co-founder Linda McMahon to be secretary of the Department of Education. .
“My members don't really care if there's a bureaucracy in the Department of Education,” Weingarten said. “In fact, in the 1970s, Al Shanker and the AFT were against its creation. We believed that for the sake of the whole child, this system should remain within HEW (Department of Health, Education and Welfare). I thought about it.”
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Randi Weingarten, president of the American Federation of Teachers, seems open to abolishing the Department of Education (ED).
Weingarten's comments came after South Dakota Sen. Mike Rounds, a Republican, raised concerns about a bill he introduced last week that would eliminate the department.
This bill, called Returning Education to the States Actseeks to transfer the department's responsibilities to other federal agencies, including the Department of the Interior, Department of the Treasury, Department of Health and Human Services, Department of Labor, and Department of State.
Weingarten was unconcerned about abolishing the Department of Education, but stressed the need for schools to receive federal funding.
“Look at Mr. Round's bill. What he's doing is taking money away for poor kids. How do you do that? To level the playing field for kids. We need federal funding,” Weingarten said.
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President-elect Donald Trump has nominated Linda McMahon, former head of the Small Business Administration and co-founder of WWE, to be secretary of the Department of Education. (Reuters/Mike Seeger/File Photo)
Corey DeAngelis, a senior fellow at the American Culture Project, told Fox News Digital that Weingarten may have “misread the bill.”
“Maybe she misread this bill, which sends money back to states in the form of block grants to be used for education,” he said. “Even a broken clock is accurate twice a day. I'm glad Randi Weingarten and I can agree on one thing: It's time to abolish the bureaucratic mess that is the Department of Education.”
He added, “If even Randi Weingarten is open to this idea, I hope some of the Democrats in Congress will go along with the majority party. The Department of Education is an unconstitutional waste of time and money.” Let's eliminate the bureaucracy and provide education.” This eliminates waste and allows for more local control. ”
Sen. Mike Rounds (R.S.D.) has introduced a bill called the “Bringing Education Back to the States Act” that would transfer ED responsibilities to other federal agencies, including the Departments of the Interior, Treasury, Health and Human Services, Labor, and State. Submitted. (Getty)
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During the campaign, Trump expressed support for abolishing the department. “My priority is to shut down the Ministry of Education,” he said. in washington d.c.and send all necessary education and educational projects back to the states. ”
