On News Nation's “The Hill” aired on Wednesday, Hawaii Gov. Josh Green (D) responded to the Trump administration's push to hand over education, saying “I'll take it” unless the state loses money. He also said among Democrats, “There's a lot of concern that it's changing so fast that no one wants to see them lose their jobs.”
Host Blake Berman said, “It's kind of funny. I said the governor does a great job because the Republican president basically says he's giving it to the states, so it's kind of funny. You're a democratic governor. So it's a Republican president and yeah, I'll make Hawaii Democrats, Governor Green treat Hawaii. Do you oppose that?”
Green replied, “No, I'll take it. I spent time with all the other governors and president a few weeks ago. If that money flows to our governor, we'll make good use of it. For the perspective of those who see, the current 11%, my entire budget on education is from the federal government. Special education for children with autism, for so many needs, for meals in schools, we need those dollars. So if dollars flow to us and we get rid of bureaucracy, I think the governor will welcome resources. It's a big, big department, so we need to be a little careful.”
Berman then asked: “Why, why, I'm sure you've heard it from a lot of people at your teachers' union, your party. But I heard you say, yeah, okay, in some form, I'm fine with that. What do you say to the people at your own party who are against this complete stop?”
Green replied. “Well, there's a lot of concern right now that change is too fast, and not everyone likes to lose their jobs. Also, I'm doing something else – I couldn't say in the first part of my answer – I mean, we're hiring people. We're doing a massive hiring boom in our state to hire federal workers or workers in Hawaii. And that relieves some of the pain. Again, I want a good education standard. We know that we can apply better standards, perhaps more specifically, here, in our own culture. So, that's why we can support this kind of change. …I don't want to see everyone lose services, but if they give us to hire people in education, we'll get dollars right away. That's the warning.”
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