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, Al Shanker and the AFT in the 1970s were against its creation. They thought it should stay within HEW (Department of Health, Education, and Welfare) for the sake of the whole child.”
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 Round's bill. What he's doing is taking money away for poor kids. How do you do that? We need federal funding to increase opportunities for kids. We need it,” Weingarten said.
Corey DeAngelis, a senior fellow at the American Culture Project, told Fox News Digital that Weingarten may have “misread the bill.”
“Perhaps she misread the bill. The funds will be transferred to the states in the form of block grants to be used for education,” he said.
“Even a broken clock will be 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. is.”
He added: “If even Randi Weingarten is open to this idea, I'm hopeful that some Democrats in Congress will join the majority party.” The Department of Education is an unconstitutional waste of time and money. Eliminate bureaucracy and bring education back to the states. This eliminates waste and allows for more local control. ”
During the campaign, Trump expressed support for abolishing the department. He said his priority would be to “shut down the Department of Education in Washington, D.C., and return all essential education and education operations to the states.”
