Her recent Fox News op-edPresident of the American Federation of Teachers (AFT) President Randy Weingarten unleashes a hyperventilation attack on Donald Trump’s executive order to dismantle the Department of Education (DOE). Her arguments are thinly covered in concerns about “students” and “fairness,” but they are nothing more than performance panic designed to protect the political slash fund that has been enabling ideological capture of the American education system for over 30 years.

Let’s be clear. This is not about protecting children or improving learning outcomes. It is protecting taxpayer-funded bureaucracy that supports the political influence of teacher unions, granting failed progressive experiments, centralizing control in Washington, and centralizing control far from parents and communities. (Related: Teachers Union Leader proposes without evidence that Trump is withdrawing student funds to pay “billionaires”)

Trump’s executive orders are not legally possible, so the Department of Education will not unilaterally abolish it. Only Congress can eliminate Cabinet-level agents. What the executive order does is to restructure and return power to the nation. This is consistent with years of conservative principles of local management and constitutional governance.

Weingarten deliberately ignores this nuance. Because she wants to frame this as a lawless grab for power. The real panic here is not legal – it’s economic. The DOE has become a bloated and inefficient tool for redistributing billions with federal funds. Much of this is filtered through union-backed initiatives and Dei bureaucrats that have nothing to do with improving education.

Her claim to “destroy vulnerable students and special education programs” is the oldest trick in the progressive playbook. Every time federal spending is questioned, it screams about hurting the poor and disabled people. But look at the results. in spite of Historical increase in education spendingthere are reading and mathematics scores I declined Or stagnant Nationally, especially in urban areas, the cost per capita is the highest. The problem is not the lack of money – it’s how you spend your money.

Much of the federal funds she mentions are in the maintenance layers of non-educational administrators and progressive social engineering programs, rather than directly benefiting students. Trump’s proposal won’t cut back on support Children with special needs -It challenges the inefficiency of a top-down system that saves bureaucratic dollars rather than classrooms. (Related: “I don’t hear any regrets”: CNN contributor goes out to her face with Randy Weingarten)

Weingarten’s claims about making money from public schools are deliberately deceptive, not only handed over to a private school voucher in “For the Rich.” Voucher and School Selection Program It is overwhelmingly popular with working class and minority families who want a fleeing hatch from the failed public schools that teacher unions like AFT protect at every cost. Weingarten benefits only to the wealthy by pretending to be these programs. can You can afford to escape the system. School choice allows poor middle-class and middle-class families to access the same freely.

Don’t forget: That’s right Democrats managed City school districts supported by unions like hers have closed schools the longest of all schools, causing devastating harm to low-income students. They lost years of learning while the union bosses were fighting to stay home. Now, do you want Weingarten to believe she is an advocate for the underprivileged? Please take a break.

When it comes to using funds as leverage for any ideological ideology, even by Weingarten’s own standards, it is a phenomenal hypocrisy. The DOE routinely used funds under Biden and Obama as a weapon to impose eye ideology on local school districts. From trans bathroom duties to race-based disciplinary policies to curricula pervasive in critical racial theory, federal dollars were often accompanied by ideological strings enacted by civil rights divisions, where weapons were administered for political purposes.

Weingarten did not raise any concerns about “authoritarianism” when he told schools he would lose funds unless the federal government promoted progressive orthodoxy. So, is it an authoritarian to suddenly return power to the nation and its parents? No, it’s a threat to her power.

Weingarten’s panic is not about legality or education. Cash Spigot is finally stopped. The DOE has become a trillion dollar pipeline of taxpayer funds that has been attracting attention through a bloated programme that rewards union allies, pushes left-wing agendas and creates a tier of bureaucrats who answer DCs rather than local parents.

Trump’s movement challenges the entire structure. It threatens to diversify education, empower parents, and justify funds based on the school system resultnot political loyalty. That’s why Weingarten is screaming as there are gravy trains in the chopping block that allowed her union to act as unelected policymakers for millions of children.

Weingarten’s Op-Ed is not a debate. It’s a political tantrum. The DOE is not a guardian of education equity, but an enabler of decades of failure, waste and ideological overreach. Trump’s decision to dismantle it is not only legal, but has been delayed for a long time. If dismantling bureaucratic monsters that produce poor results and breed political corruption is “radical,” then it is something radical that America desperately needs.

The only thing that really is “illegal and wrong” is to force taxpayers to fund partisan education cartels that are more interested in indoctrination than instruction. And Weingarten knows that. That’s why she’s scary.

Robert B. Chernin is the chairman American Educational Knowledge Center. He was a longtime entrepreneur, business leader, fundraiser, and political confidant, consulting on federal and statewide campaigns at the governor, congressional, senator, and presidential levels.