Sherry Sylvester - Distinguished Senior Fellow, TPPF Joins Houston's Morning News

Episode Transcript

Speaker 1 (00:00):
Day thirty five of the government shutdown. Was it a
Randy Winingarden, President of the American Federation of Teachers, who
said that without the federal government, education with collapse. Well,
guess what the Department of Education is not working right now?
Is anything collapsed at your public school? I think so.

Speaker 2 (00:18):
No.

Speaker 1 (00:18):
Public schools are continually just fine, thank you very much.
They aren't even missing out in any funding at this point.
Cherry Silvester joined us distincuished Senior Fellow at the Texas
Public Policy Foundation. So is the government shutdown of nothing else?
Cherry proved that we really didn't need the Department of Education.

Speaker 2 (00:34):
Well, if we needed any more proof, thanks for having
me on, Jimmy. I mean, the Department of Education was
established by Jimmy Carter as a favor to the teachers' unions.
It was just one more federal jobs program for them,
and they began they're already panicking because Trump when he

(00:57):
appointed Linda McMahon Secretary of Education, he pledged to get
rid of it. She says she's working herself out of
a job and has already laid off lots of people.
But now that nobody's coming into works, it's really clear.
I mean, think what we how many times have I
talked to you? Think what we invest in education in Texas?

(01:19):
Billions of dollars and you know that come from property
taxes that now the state is taking home. We're putting
that into our schools that we don't need the federal government.
And as you said, you bring up Randy Winngarden, don't
get me started. I mean they the National Teachers' Unions.

(01:40):
The last time they had their conference. Remember that poor
teacher running around trying to find some kind of a
workshop on teaching. It was all on how do we
get rid of Trump? And who should we vote for
the next election. They're just they are when you think
of why so many things are growing going wrong in

(02:01):
this country. You know, I say the wu on wet
lab a lot, but you know this are education technocrats.
I mean the last in September, you did get me started, Jimmy.
In September we got the last national report card September
twenty five. Everything is down. You know, that's the kids

(02:23):
in the country, Declining grades in reading, declining grades in math,
declining grades in science. The gap between the kids that
are doing well and the kids that are not doing well.
That is widening worst ever report.

Speaker 1 (02:41):
That's not that that's that's that is to me, that
is a written invitation to just blow up the system
and start over again. And speaking of which with the
Education Department, is this something that President Trump could just
get rid of by signing an executive order or is
this something that would have to be go through Congress
where Congress have to approve the official end of the

(03:03):
Department of Education.

Speaker 2 (03:05):
I think there's it's a middle I'm not a bureaucrat, happily, Jimmy,
but I think it's the middle people that I have
talked to up there. There's a couple of our college
loans program is run out of there, and of course
you're trying to reform that, and so they have to
put some things in other places. So it's it's too

(03:27):
complex for an executive order, is what the people that
I've talked to it the Department of Education say. But
they are unwinding it as quickly as that.

Speaker 1 (03:39):
Can well, and that's good because no good has happened
as a result of the Department of Education. We can
only go up from here. Thank you, ma'am. Appreciate it.
As always said Cherry Sylvester just think we've Senior Fellow
at the Texas Public Policy Foundation