Bay Area educators respond to Donald Trump's plan to dismantle Dept. of Education

SAN FRANCISCO (KGO) -- Former President Donald Trump took aim at the way education is being handled in the country.

He said he wanted to dismantle the Department of Education and pull funding from public schools that taught certain subjects.

He discussed his plans during an interview Friday on Fox News.

"We're going to take the Department of Education and close it," Trump said. "I'm going to close it."

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"Here's what bothers me about that," Brian Kilmeade said during the interview. "Let's say you have a liberal city, like Los Angeles or San Diego, and they just decide that 'we're going to get rid of that history. We have new history. This is America, built off the backs of slaves and on stolen land.' And that curriculum comes in."

"Then we don't send them money," Trump responded.

Trump went on to say states like California would have to be watched and "if they want to get cute, you don't send them the money."

Gov. Gavin Newsom responded in a post on X, saying Trump is unhinged and unfit to be president if he wants to take away nearly $8 billion in school funding for California kids.

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It's funding that San Jose State University's College of Education Dean Heather Lattimer says is critical.

"If you look at the Department of Education, as well as our state funding mechanisms, so much of what is there is really to support our most vulnerable children and families," Lattimer said.

Lattimer fears class size protections, special education classes, student meals and other support, are all services that could go away without the Department of Education.

However, CSU East Bay Professor of History and Communication Nolan Higdon says no one should panic yet.

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Higdon says the educational system is complex and it's not clear how Trump would even be able to do what he is suggesting.

"Local school boards have a lot of influence over what is taught in those schools and how things are measured," Higdon said. "The federal government could try and incentivize schools to offer certain things or do certain testing with money, but overall, the federal government has very little control over the curriculum in classrooms."

Higdon says these are conservative ideals about bringing down what they view as bureaucracies, such as the Department of Education.

But Lattimer says we need to focus on uplifting public education for the benefit of all.

"The fact that public education has been used now for years as a bludgeon to divide our society is really, really problematic," Lattimer said.