The head of the nation’s second-largest teachers’ labor union warned there could be legal complications and privacy risks if President Donald Trump’s administration is successful in dismantling the Department of Education.
The Wall Street Journal reported Tuesday that Trump officials are mulling executive actions to eliminate the department as part of the Department of Government Efficiency’s task to shrink the federal government.
According to the report, Trump advisers are debating 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,” and would call for a legislative proposal to fully abolish the department.
During an appearance on CNN on Tuesday, president of the American Federation of Teachers, Randi Weingarten, said what Trump was doing was illegal, and she expressed concerns about privacy risks involved with the overhaul of the federal agency.
“The move is not legal,” Weingarten told host Kate Bolduan. “There are lots of things about the Department of Education that are in statute,” she said about funds that go out from the department to low-income families, students with disabilities, English as a second language learners, and to work study programs.
“You’re talking about millions of kids. And what that department really does is it actually makes sure that the money goes out and it’s not stolen. It is actually used for the intended purposes. Those are the most important functions of the Department of Education,” she argued.
Weingarten denied the agency handled curriculum in schools but served as more of a financial aid office.
The labor leader argued there should be more federal control over education, saying there should be a federal policy helping schools to compete with China.
In 2019, Weingarten made over half a million dollars per year in her job, according to AFT’s Internal Revenue Service Form 990. Her salary was more than nine times the average teachers salary in the U.S.