The dismantling of the Department of Education began Tuesday, "drastic measures" that Mercedes Schlapp told Newsmax are necessary to pry the country's education hierarchy out of the federal government and give it back to the states.
Schlapp, former White House director of strategic communications in President Donald Trump's first term in office, joined conservative voice Larry Elder on "Rob Schmitt Tonight" to react to the news that the DOE began cutting half of its 4,000 employees earlier in the day.
"When you have to cut down expenses, when you're working on balancing the budget, you're going to need to make significant changes," Schlapp said. "And that's why you have seen, in the case of the Department of Education, taking such drastic measures, because they want to take education back to the states."
She added, "That is a priority in terms of making sure that there's these local decisions instead of being basically getting the priorities coming from the federal government."
Elder, podcast host and former California Republican gubernatorial candidate, said the "quality of education" in the U.S. will not be adversely impacted by razing the DOE.
"We're getting lousy results, K through 12, when you compare it to our counterparts in Europe and in Asia. Especially in urban America, where 85% of Black eighth graders can neither read nor do math at grade level," Elder said.
"Yet we're spending more money K through 12 than virtually any other country on the face of the Earth, not getting the results," he added. "Get rid of the whole Department of Education. I assure you the quality of our education in America will not suffer at all. The money should follow the child, rather than the other way around."
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