This weekend, Lt. Gov. Jacqueline Coleman joined NewsNation’s Chris Stirewalt on “The Hill Sunday” to discuss how Trump’s signing of an executive order to eliminate the Department of Education will impact Kentucky.
“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…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,”
“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.”
See more below on how Lt. Gov. Coleman is highlighting the impacts on Kentucky:
Lexington Herald Leader: Lt. Gov. Coleman: Dismantling the US Dept. of Education will harm KY students ‘irreparably’
If the U.S. Department of Education is dismantled “it is states like Kentucky that will suffer the most,” Lt. Gov. Jacqueline Coleman said Wednesday in Louisville.
At the IBEW Local 369, Coleman said that she was “here to sound the alarm” on the impact to Kentucky, should Republican President Donald Trump follow through with his promise to dismantle the federal agency.
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Coleman said 926 schools in the state receive Title I funding, which are federal dollars received by school districts to support students from low-income families. If programs and services are cut under IDEA, or the Individuals with Disabilities Education Act, more than 114,000 Kentucky students could lose support. Last year, Kentuckians received more than $370 million in federal Pell Grants, which go to students who demonstrate financial need going to college or earning a professional degree.
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“The dismantling of the Department of Education is happening,” Coleman warned, “by folks losing their jobs, and as they lose their jobs, that’s fewer people to work on these programs that kids and families need.”
