Dallas, TX—Freedom Foundation CEO and Teacher Freedom Alliance President Aaron Withe issued the following statement regarding President Trump’s plans to dismantle the Department of Education:

“President Trump is delivering on his promise to dismantle the federal education bureaucracy, and who is leading the opposition? Randi Weingarten and the teachers’ unions. Weingarten claims this will create ‘confusion’ and ‘barriers.’ That’s rich coming from someone who’s spent her career defending the bloated mess that is the Department of Education. The unions don’t care about streamlining anything. They want to protect their stranglehold on federal education policy.

“Let’s be clear about what’s really happening here. The teachers’ unions have enjoyed unprecedented power over this department since Jimmy Carter created it as a political favor to the NEA. They’ve had decades to deliver results. Instead, American students keep falling further behind while spending keeps going up. That’s the ‘confusion’ Weingarten should be worried about.

“The unions oppose these reforms because they threaten the special access they’ve enjoyed for too long. Well, that era is over. Parents, students, and local communities deserve better than a system designed to serve union bosses. The Freedom Foundation applauds President Trump and Secretary McMahon for taking bold action to break up this failed bureaucracy and return control of education where it belongs.”