LAFAYETTE PARISH, La. (KLFY) — President Donald Trump’s executive order to dismantle the US Department of Education would fulfill a campaign promise by him to give states more power for how education gets handled. 

“We have a dream and you know the dream is we’re going to move the Department of Education. We’re going to move education into the states so that the states and set of bureaucrats working in Washington so that the states can run education,” said President Trump. “We want education to be moved back where the States run education. Where the  parents of the children will be running education, where Governors that are doing a very good job will be running education.”   

What does that mean for education in Lafayette Parish? 

Well, Superintendent Francis Touchet Jr. with the Lafayette Parish School System said he does not think that anything that is going on at the federal government is going to have any impact on what they are doing. 

“We are going to look at the revenue that we have,” he said. “We’re going to divide it and make sure that we align it to its resources and we’re going to continue to function. We’re going to look to the state to give us our guidance and not the federal government and to me, I think that’s what the goal is as far as the federal government is concerned is that everything needs to be returned back to the states and the states need to determine what goes on as far as education.” 

He added that they have no guidance if there is going to be any cuts as far as what they are getting from the federal government.

“When the state gets its funding. We’re going to look at and we’re going to prioritize and we’re going to make sure that we are doing what we have to do to meet the needs of our kids,” he said. 

Concluding he said, “I am not scared of what is happening. I think it’s a positive thing. I think that what is happening is that returning it back to the state level, because I truly believe that here in Lafayette Parish, we’re going to take care of our kids in Lafayette Parish no matter what. We’re going to make sure that the kids in Lafayette Parish are taken care of.” 

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