Exclusive — Scott Walker on Trump Proposal to Dismantle Department of Education: ‘Don’t Wait, Don’t Delay’

Former Wisconsin governor and current president of Young America’s Foundation (YAF) Scott Walker (R) said President-elect Donald Trump must seize on early momentum to dismantle the Department of Education when he assumes office.

“These things are essential to act on. Don’t wait, don’t delay it. You have to act as quickly as possible, because the longer you sit back and wait, the more people [will have excuses like] ‘well, it’s too close to the next election,”‘ Walker said during an interview on Breitbart News Daily.

Walker reflected on advice he received before he became governor, noting that “political capital is the highest right when you take office, and every day after, it goes down.”

“So move as quickly as you can — take that political capital, and then when you win any [battles], even small ones, keep reinvesting. It’s just like the private sector. Don’t hoard the capital. Don’t sit back and watch your poll numbers go up. Instead, keep reforming, keep pushing forward,” he said. “Do it as quickly and as aggressively as possible. Even some of the fence sitters — particularly folks in the United States Senate who’ve been there forever, who might not like that kind of rapid change, they’ll be engaged just like my state Senate was. They’ll be drawn in, they’ll want to be a part of it, but you gotta move quickly.”

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Host Mike Slater asked Walker about the Department of Education in light of Trump’s resurfaced campaign pledge to eliminate it and cancel the accreditation of “woke” universities.

One video, in which Trump promises to close the Department of Education (which was established 45 years ago under President Jimmy Carter) and return that power to states and local communities, dates back to July 2024:

Trump said:

And one other thing I’ll be doing very early in the administration is closing up the Department of Education in Washington, DC, and sending all education and education work and needs back to the States. We want them to run the education of our children, because they’ll do a much better job of it. You can’t do worse. We spend more money per pupil, by three times, than any other nation. And yet we’re absolutely at the bottom. We’re one of the worst. So you can’t do worse. We’re going to end education coming out of Washington, DC. We’re going to close it up — all those buildings all over the place, and [you have] people that in many cases hate our children. We’re going to send it all back to the States.

Another video, promoted Monday by Elon Musk, described a new system of accreditation to combat “woke” universities. The video dates to July 2023:

The Wall Street Journal noted Monday: “President-elect Donald Trump has vowed to remake education in the U.S., pledging to exert more control over funding and classroom lessons, to curb what he views as left-leaning tendencies at universities and even to dismantle the Department of Education.” It also noted his plans to expand school choice.

Walker responded, “Absolutely” when asked if Trump should get rid of the Department of Education and said he believes it “totally can be done.”  Slater also asked how special education would be handled if the department is eliminated.

“Send the responsibility and resources back to the states, and more importantly, to the people,” Walker said.

“I was a governor for eight years. … Governors are much closer to the people. They’re much more adept at handling these issues, special education, all these other areas,” he said. “You deal with it at the state and the local level, not with a bunch of federal bureaucrats back in Washington, DC, who don’t have any clue what it takes to teach — particularly special needs kids  — out in our communities across America.”

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