Kentucky Lt. Gov. Jacqueline Coleman (D) said Sunday that she is concerned with the Department of Education’s disassembly in the wake of President Trump signing an executive order seeking to facilitate its elimination.
“When I hear folks from Washington, they sound really out of touch with what’s going on in the state and certainly in our classrooms,” Coleman told NewsNation’s Chris Stirewalt on “The Hill Sunday.” “And I can say that because I went from being a high school teacher, a basketball coach and an assistant principal to being Kentucky’s lieutenant governor.”
“And what concerns me is the message that we’re sending at a macro level here, and that message is that the United States of America would rather dismantle the U.S. Department of Education than invest in the kids and the families that need it the most,” she added.
Trump’s executive order acknowledges that it would take congressional action to close down the Department of Education completely. Still, Trump ordered Education Secretary Linda McMahon to do all she can to result in its abolition.
“Today, we take a very historic action that was 45 years in the making,” Trump said during a White House signing ceremony Thursday. “I will sign an executive order to begin eliminating the federal Department of Education.”
“The department’s useful functions … will be preserved, fully preserved,” the president added about Pell Grants, Title I funding and programs for students with disabilities.
In her appearance on “The Hill Sunday,” Coleman said that “kids from low income communities, kids who depend on Pell Grants to go to college, kids who depend on special education services, should not have to wonder if those services will be available to them based on who the governor and lieutenant governor is.”
The Hill has reached out to the White House and Department of Education for comment.
