Teachers’ union boss Randi Weingarten said during a recent podcast appearance that she is fearful President Donald Trump’s plans to terminate the Department of Education will mean more funding for school choice vouchers, which she decried as a “tax credit” for wealthy families already sending their kids to private school.
Weingarten’s comments came during a podcast interview with Molly Jong-Fast, who spoke with her about the implications of Trump’s spending reforms, particularly his plan to terminate the Department of Education. Weingarten stated that cutting the department’s roughly $100 billion in funding will primarily benefit tax cuts for the wealthy or – “equally pernicious” – be redirected to states as “block grants.”
“We know, for example, what Texas would do,” Weingarten told Jong-Fast. “They’ll use it for vouchers. So they won’t give [federal funding] to the kids who have it now, they’ll just give it for vouchers.”
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“And frankly, what we are seeing in all the programs now – in terms of vouchers – they don’t work for kids,” Weingarten continued. “They basically go right now – it becomes a tax credit for people who already are sending their kids to private schools. So it’s income redistribution.”
Randi Weingarten is the president of the American Federation of Teachers, the nation’s second-largest teachers’ union behind the National Education Association. (Reuters/Getty)
Trump has not taken any formal action to dismantle the the department, but media reports have signaled he is close to signing an executive order directing his education secretary, Linda McMahon, to begin the process. Last month, the president mused during a press conference from the Oval Office that the Education Department was “a big con job” that needed to be shut down “immediately.”
Alongside his anticipated executive action to dismantle the department Trump issued an executive order on Jan. 29 to expand “educational freedom” for families through various school choice programs, including vouchers.
“We’re fighting to protect our kids and protect that funding and not let Donald Trump or Elon Musk glom it off for tax cuts for billionaires or for block grants for vouchers,” Weingarten responded after Jong-Fast asked what she and her union, the American Federation of Teachers, was doing to combat Trump. Weingarten added that regardless of whether you are a Republican or Democrat, ensuring American families have the economic and educational opportunities to achieve the American Dream, should be a priority.
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“We all have to do a lot more to help make sure that families in America have what they need for a quality of life, for entry into the middle class,” Weingarten said.
Randi Weingarten, the president of the American Federation of Teachers (AFTHQ YouTube channel)
However, while Weingarten may be of the belief that school choice funding, in particular for vouchers, does not benefit the economic and educational opportunities of Americans, others disagree with that notion.
Rachel Langan, a senior education policy analyst at the Commonwealth Foundation, a public policy think-tank based in Pennsylvania, said “simply spending more money” is not an answer to the deficiencies within the U.S. education system.
“Pennsylvania already dedicates more than $37 billion to public schools, more than $22,000 per student. Yet, the latest U.S. Department of Education data shows that 69% of Pennsylvania eighth-grade students aren’t proficient at math, and an equal 69% cannot read at grade level – despite a $4.1 billion increase in state education spending in the last four years,” Langan said in a statement following Trump’s executive order directing the federal government to prioritize school choice funding.
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“Parents need more educational options, as evidenced by the continued waiting lists for charter schools and for the state’s tax credit scholarship programs, which serve large numbers of low-income families zoned to attend low-achieving public schools.”
Students and classroom split image (iStock/Getty)
“The time is now for school choice in every state,” the American Federation for Children, a nonprofit that advocates for school choice, added following Trump’s order. “For a generation, our nation’s education system has been held hostage by bureaucrats and schooling unions who care only about preserving their own power, not the needs of American students.”
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Since Trump’s executive order boosting school choice funding, a handful of states have introduced legislation to make these programs more widely available. In total, 14 states have passed universal school choice bills.
Fox News Digital reached out to the American Federation of Teachers and Weingarten for comment, but did not hear back prior to publication.
