Lakeside School Board Member Praises Trump’s Order to Close Department of Education

A Lakeside school board member praised President Donald Trump’s executive order to close the Department of Education in a statement that criticized California’s education leaders.
Andrew Hayes said he is the first school board member in San Diego County to publicly support the executive order.
“I see this as a good thing,” he said.
Hayes is asking the Trump administration to send any potential money from the elimination of the department to local school districts and not the state of California.
“Time after time, Sacramento politicians have demonstrated that they are not capable of spending money wisely,” Hayes said.
“I request the Trump Administration to send cost savings from the consolidation of the (D)epartment of (E)ducation to individual school districts and not the black hole of Sacramento wasteful spending,” he said.
Hayes, who was first elected to the Lakeside Union School District Board of Trustees in 2018, served as an aide to former San Diego County Supervisor Joel Anderson when he was a state legislator and then as district director for state Senator Brian Jones. He ran for a State Assembly seat in November, losing to Carl DeMaio.
Trump’s executive order, signed on Thursday, directed U.S. Secretary of Education Linda McMahon to close the department and ship its critical functions to other federal departments.
The Department of Education is largely responsible for enforcing discrimination laws and distributing aid money for schools with low-income students and students with disabilities.
The department also oversees college tuition assistance programs like Pell grants.
Federal funding makes up around 14% of public school budgets.
California Attorney General Rob Bonta, who has sued the Trump Administration over the mass firings of Department of Education workers, said he would monitor how the executive order is carried out.
Bonta said in a statement Thursday that the Trump Administration knows eliminating the department requires congressional approval, “Yet it continues to do everything it can to destroy the Department’s ability to carry out its most vital, congressionally-mandated functions – with the clearly stated ‘final mission’ of shuttering the Department for good.”
Hayes said he believes the president has a right to consolidate parts of his administration.
“I believe it’s legal, and he has that authority as the president,” he said.
The executive order also tasked the department with rooting out schools that have diversity, equity and inclusion programs and “programs promoting gender ideology.”
Some children’s advocates and California education leaders worry these actions will hurt vulnerable students and erode public trust in the education system.
Hayes’ message to the president said that directing funding to local school districts would allow schools to expand career education and vocational programs that “Sacramento politicians” have neglected.
“The State of California and Sacramento politicians have failed our students,” he said.
Hayes said he is an advocate for vocational programs, like Project Lead the Way, and project-based learning curriculums.
Project Lead the Way is a nationwide nonprofit organization that develops STEM curriculum for schools and operates in the Lakeside and Tierra del Sol middle schools.