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Randi Weingarten claims teacher union members are indifferent about Department of Education being abolished

"My members don’t really care about whether they have a bureaucracy at the Department of Education or not," Weingarten said. "In fact, Al Shanker and the AFT in the 1970s were opposed to its creation. We thought it should stay within HEW (Department of Health, Education, and Welfare) because of the whole child."

The American Federation of Teachers President Randi Weingarten appears to be open to abolishing the Department of Education (ED).

Furthermore, Weingarten stressed the necessity for schools to have federal funding.

"Look at Round's bill. What he does is he gets rid of the money for poor kids. How do you do that? We need federal dollars to level up opportunity for children," Weingarten said.

President-elect Donald Trump nominated former Small Business Administration administrator and co-founder of the WWE Linda McMahon to lead the Department of Education.  (REUTERS/Mike Segar/File Photo)

"Maybe she misread the bill. It sends the money back to the states in the form of block grants to be used for education," he said. "Even a broken clock is right twice a day. I'm glad Randi Weingarten and I can agree on one thing: it's time to abolish the bureaucratic mess that is the Department of Education."

He continued, "If even Randi Weingarten is open to the idea, hopefully some Democrats in Congress will get on board with the majority Party. The Department of Education is an unconstitutional waste of time and money. Let's get rid of the bureaucracy and send education back to the states. That will eliminate waste and allow for more local control."

Sen. Mike Rounds, R-S.D., introduced a bill called the Returning Education to Our States Act to redirect ED's responsibilities to other federal agencies such as the Departments of Interior, Treasury, Health and Human Services, Labor and State. (Getty)