On Wednesday’s broadcast of NewsNation’s “The Hill,” Hawaii Gov. Josh Green (D) reacted to the Trump administration’s push to turn education over to the states by stating, “I’ll take it” as long as states don’t lose money. He also stated that, among Democrats, “there’s a lot of concern that the changes are too quick and we don’t like to see anyone lose jobs.”
Host Blake Burman asked, “So, it’s kind of interesting, because I essentially just heard the Republican president basically say, give it to the states, the governors are doing a great job. You’re a Democratic Governor. So, that’s a Republican president saying, yeah, let the Democrat, Gov. Green, in Hawaii handle Hawaii. Do you object to that?”
Green answered, “No, I’ll take it. I spent time with the president a couple of weeks ago with all the other governors. If that money flows to we governors, we’ll make good use of it. Just for perspective for those watching, 11%, right now, of my entire budget on education is from the federal government. I need those dollars for, like, special education for kids with autism, for so many needs, for meals in our schools. So, if the dollars flow to us and we get rid of some bureaucracy, I think governors will welcome the resource. We have to be a little careful because it’s a big, big department.”
Burman then asked, “So, why, — the teachers’ unions, I’m sure you’ve heard from many in your party who are just, obviously, when they hear, dismantle the Department of Education, they’re against that. But I just heard you say, yeah, okay, some form of it, I’m good with it. What would you say to those in your own party who are just against this full stop?”
Green responded, “Well, right now, there’s a lot of concern that the changes are too quick and we don’t like to see anyone lose jobs. I’m also doing another thing — which I didn’t get to say in the first part of my answer — which is, we’re hiring people. We are doing a huge hiring boom in our state to hire the federal workers or workers in Hawaii that are otherwise losing their jobs. And so, that buffers some of the pain. Again, I want good education standards. We know that we can apply excellent standards, probably more specific to our own culture here. So, that’s why I can support these kind of changes. … I don’t want to see anyone lose services, but we will immediately take the dollars if they pass them over to us to hire people in education. That’s the caveat.”
Follow Ian Hanchett on Twitter @IanHanchett
