WATCH: Randi Weingarten Trips All Over Herself As She Argues Against Cutting Department of Education

One of the many things the Trump team has been looking into changing/getting rid of is the Department of Education.

The officials have discussed an executive order that would shut down all functions of the agency that aren’t written explicitly into statute or move certain functions to other departments, according to people familiar with the matter. The order would call for developing a legislative proposal to abolish the department, the people said. Trump’s advisers are still debating the specifics of the order and the timing, the people said.

Randi Weingarten, the president of the American Federation of Teachers, went on MSNBC to speak out against the idea. First, she attacked with a false premise, asking if they were trying to take the "money that kids get" and give it to "tax cuts for billionaires," claiming that it was "illegal to take that money out of children's mouths."

Randi Weingarten accuses Trump of taking teacher’s salaries and giving them to “billionaires” by cutting the Department of Education.

Teachers are paid through local and state funding, not federal.

Randi Weingarten also makes over $500,000 a year; the average for teachers is… pic.twitter.com/FR20RA91OO
— Media Lies (@MediasLies) February 4, 2025

I'm not sure what she's talking about there. What "money that kids get"? I think, based on what she said, she may be talking about the school lunch program. But the National School Lunch Program is part of the Department of Agriculture's Food and Nutrition Service. So, does she even know what she's talking about?

There is no indication that Trump would be eliminating anything required by statute. The "tax cuts for billionaires" is just the typical Democratic lie to whip up class hate. Tax cuts under Trump in his first term benefited most Americans.

But ultimately what's ironic here is that she ends up admitting that states and local entities should control things. She explained one of her predecessors didn't want the Department of Education.

"States and localities run education," Weingarten said. "That's where 90 percent of the funding goes. They already run it. They should run it. The federal government shouldn't run it."

Exactly. That's what we're saying. Thanks for making that point.

People agreed.

Your terms are acceptable https://t.co/65N7UMO9op
— Mary Katharine Ham (@mkhammer) February 5, 2025

Weingarten tries to argue there's some greater point to having it for federal policy. But you can have policy — if necessary under another department — without having a whole money-sucking department for things that are admittedly supposed to be run by the locals. Trump wants to have money and control back with the locals running it — as it should be. Meanwhile, with the Department of Education, our results have been tanking.

The Department of Education's budget for fiscal year 2025 is $82.4 billion, with an average salary of $112,164, 56% higher than the average government employee.

Since its formation in 1979, the US has gone from 1st to 34th in OECD ranking.pic.twitter.com/8s2gRXHCPc
— John LeFevre (@JohnLeFevre) February 3, 2025