U.S. Sen. Tommy Tuberville (R-Auburn) recently doubled down on his support for President-elect Donald Trump's stated plan to abolish the U.S. Department of Education.
After Trump's dominant presidential victory last week, a year-old video has been making the rounds on social media of Trump detailing a "very early" priority in his administration to close the Department of Education, sending all education-related decisions back to the states. In the video, Trump claimed the department, founded by then-President Jimmy Carter in 1979, facilitated the nation's decline in education performance and that education bureaucrats "in many cases, hate our children.'
Tuberville announced support for Trump's plan, even though Trump received vehement backlash from critics who view the education department as essential to nationwide school funding.
SEE: Tuberville backs Trump's plan to shutter U.S. Education Department — 'Shut it down'
During a call with reporters this week, Tuberville did not back down an inch from his criticisms of the Education Department, slamming the federal government for facilitating a sharp decline in the state's education rankings.
"The federal government got involved, and it's gotten worse," Tuberville said. You know, we were in the top five in education in the world before the Department of Education started; now we're in the lower part of the 20s, 25 to 30. And that's not acceptable because we spend more money per student than any other country in the world.'
"It goes back to people," he continued. "It goes back to the unions, the teachers' unions that have really, really hurt what's going on in the Department of Education and our education system. Not just elementary, not just secondary, but also higher education. You know, we've lost sight of what's important. And if we don't have well-educated kids, we're not going to have a great future for this country. And that's why I strongly agree with President Trump's plan to shut the Department of Education down and send it back to the states. We need to take a sledgehammer to it. The states can handle their kids and their curriculum a lot better than Washington, D.C."
Shutting down the Department would require an act of Congress. Tuberville expressed skepticism at the chances of such a measure passing. Even with the GOP holding a 53-seat majority in the Senate, a proposed measure would require some Democratic support.
"Here's the problem: it's going to take 60 votes in the Senate to get that passed," Tuberville said. "It's going to be hard to pass it because we're dealing with a group of Democrats that are going to try to block everything we possibly do."
He continued, "You know, there are so many people that work in the Department of Education, three or four thousand. And I don't know what they do, but they haven't done anything to help improve the education in this country in the last 20 [or] 30 years."
The Education Department accounts for roughly 14% of all education funding in the United States. Supporters of the agency claim that shutting it down would lead to massive funding cuts and even school closures nationwide.
An August Pew Research survey found that only 44% of Americans have a favorable view of the Department. The divide gets more stark when broken down between party lines, with 62% of Democrats favoring the Department compared to only 27% of Republicans.
To connect with the author of this story or to comment, email craig.monger@1819news.com.
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