Former President Barack Obama's secretary of education, Arne Duncan, said on Wednesday that President-elect Donald Trump's threat to cut the Department of Education was "empty."
"Trump promising to eliminate the Department of Education was never going to happen. That's just another empty, broken promise," Duncan told CNN's Jake Tapper. "Whether his supporters hold him accountable for that, I don't know."
During Trump's campaign, the president-elect repeatedly promised to shut down the department and return education funding responsibilities to the states, according to a report from The Hill.
Duncan insisted that most funding for public education already comes from the states. "So [Trump's] saying things that don't really make sense, and, unfortunately, really trying to politicize and weaponize education," he added.
On Tuesday, Trump nominated Linda McMahon as his education secretary. McMahon is the wife of pro-wrestling mogul Vince McMahon, and she has previous experience serving in a Trump administration. From 2017 to 2019, she served as Trump's administrator of the Small Business Administration.
Duncan said of McMahon that he hopes "she goes in with good faith and that she's not there to dismantle it. I can only hope and pray she goes in good faith to help students learn, not dismantle the place, not reduce trust in public education."