With the caveat that no detailed proposal has emerged, Gov. Andy Beshear focused his response on the Education Department's role in special education and school meals.
“We have 16,000 Kentucky students that are receiving special education services as coordinated and goes through the US Department of Education. And then when you looked at school-based meals, the initial number I have is more than 500,000,000 annually coming into Kentucky,” Beshear said. “So, when you look at the impact that this could have on us, it's significant and it's serious.”
In Washington, Kentucky Congressman Thomas Massie is leading the charge in scrapping the more than four-decade-old agency.
“The federal government's responsible for about 90% of the red tape that local schools have to deal with and only about 10% of the funding,” Massie said.
Dismantling the department should take an action of Congress, but the Trump White House could adopt policies that chip away at the agency in a piecemeal fashion.
