AFT President Randi Weingarten sounds alarm on Trump education cuts
Randi Weingarten, president of the American Federation of Teachers, is sounding the alarm on the Trump administration's cuts to the Department of Education.
Twenty states, including New York, New Jersey and Connecticut, are currently suing the administration over the plan to dismantle the department and slash its workforce by nearly 50%.
Education Secretary Linda McMahon said the cuts are needed for efficiency, accountability and redirecting resources to people who need them, but Weingarten sees them getting in the way.
"None of us like bureaucracy. But when you get rid of half the people, when you get rid of the entire group of people that do, that are in the office of civil rights, you can't get things done," Weingarten said on CBS News New York's "The Point with Marcia Kramer."
"I think [McMahon] is a good person. I mean, we disagree on many, many things, but she has often said she is just doing the bidding of Donald Trump, and Donald Trump has made no secret of the fact he wants to abolish the Department of Education. So, they're abolishing it by 10,000 cuts," she added.
"The federal role in education will just collapse"
Weingarten said the cuts will make it more difficult for federal funds, including Pell Grants, to reach schools and families.
"The federal role in education will just collapse," Weingarten said. "States control schools and local school districts control schools, not the federal government. But what the federal government does, since the Johnson administration, since LBJ, is that they filled opportunity gaps. So they gave us, and look, we fought for it, and people in New York know this, Title I. Kids who are poor, they get money from the federal government."
Nearly 26 million low-income students benefit from Title I money, which helps with after-school programs, summer school and reading specialists, for example, in communities that may not otherwise be able to afford them, she said.
New financial aid challenges?
According to Weingarten, approximately 12 million students receive federal Pell Grants, which are used to attend college and are awarded based on financial need.
"When you add all this up, it's millions of kids that are going to get affected. So if you cut half the people at the Department of Education, who's going to get these grants out? How is that going to happen?" she said.
On top of all that, Weingarten said the cuts could make applying for financial aid more difficult.
"The Department of Education is one of the biggest banks in America. When all the banks went belly-up in 2008, what President Obama then did with the Congress was they put all of the school-related banking into the Department of Education. So if you're a parent and you're trying to get financial aid for your kid to go to college, you file one form, not 5,000 forms, and the Department of Education is the one that makes sure all those colleges get it. Who's going to do all that work?" she said.
