SAN DIEGO (KGTV) — President Donald Trump made a campaign promise to cut the U.S. Education Department, and on Thursday, multiple sources say he's likely to sign an executive order doing just that.
“Just utter frustration and sadness for what this is going to mean for students," said David Goldberg, President of the California Teachers Association, reacting to the news.
A White House official revealed to Scripps News Group, and confirmed by ABC News, President Trump's executive order will direct Secretary of Education and former wrestling promoter Linda McMahon to dissolve the Education Department, sending policy decisions back to the states.
“We have a person, who’s in charge of public education in this country, who spent her time running world wrestling and has no idea about what happens in our classrooms," Goldberg said. "And we have a President who is dead set on really dismantling anything that serves the public.”
Goldberg said the Education Department has been crucial in supporting the lives of our country's most vulnerable students, including 800,000 in California with special needs, or those who receive financial aid through Pell Grants to go to college.
According to ABC News, a statement from the Education Department said it promised to "continue to deliver on all statutory programs that fall under the agency's purview, including formula funding, student loans, Pell Grants, funding for special needs students, and competitive grantmaking."
However, Goldbers isn't buying it.
“Frankly, they won’t even know because they’re dismantling the entire oversight system that would even tell us if that’s true," he said.
Trump has long hinted at making this move. ABC 10News raised the possibility to local school board members back in February.
Andrew Hayes, a board member of the Lakeside Union School District, supported the move.
“Local districts know their communities best," he said. "What they teach their kids should be on the local school districts and that’s why I’ve been so supportive of local control throughout my time being a school board member, and I’ll continue to do so.”
Richard Berrera, Vice President of the San Diego Unified School Board, questioned the decision.
“The conversation needs to be about the federal government doing more, and not less, and not operating in a sort of, the chaos, that we’ve seen over the past couple of weeks coming out of the Trump administration," he said.
Berrera and Goldberg said California has already suffered from underfunding for years. Goldberg even called it "a crisis."
Plus, Goldberg said 2,400 public K-12 educators in the state have already been laid off as of Tuesday, with more likely on the way.
Goldberg said he does not plan on letting this play out passively.
“This is so dire and so impactful to what even happens in California, that we’re really coming to the understanding that all of us are going to have to really go after and focus on even national Congress," he said. "Everywhere we are, every community across this country, because this is going to have disastrous consequences and it can’t be tolerated.”
It's important to note, an executive order alone won't be enough to get rid of the Education Department. A federal agency cannot be abolished without approval from Congress, which created the department in the first place.
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