Fox News contributor Jason Chaffetz: “I don't even believe there even should be a federal Department of Education”

Chaffetz: “But no, now it ends up that actually they're using that money for critical race theory, equity, all these different diversion programs that the Democrats have always been on their wish list.”

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Citation From the April 28, 2022, edition of Fox News' America's Newsroom

JASON CHAFFETZ (FOX NEWS CONTRIBUTOR): $122 billion was given through the Department of Education, and the idea was that they needed to work on the ventilation systems. They needed computers for — laptops for teachers to teach remotely. They needed to make — you know, retrofit a lot of these schools so they could do school lunches properly. But no, now it ends up that actually they're using that money for critical race theory, equity, all these different diversion programs that the Democrats have always been on their wish list. They could never, ever pass this individually. But they've tapped into $122 billion that was passed all by themselves. Democrats passed this all by themselves. 

BILL HEMMER (CO-HOST): Proper ventilation, right? I mean, that's how it was sold to us, right? We had to fix the windows. 

CHAFFETZ: Can't get kids back in school until the school's fixed.

HEMMER: You could build entirely new buildings with all the money they did there. Isn't this the problem with the D.C. shell game when it comes to money? You get the bill passed and then it becomes fungible, right? You can do what you want with it. 

CHAFFETZ: That is the fundamental problem. Look, I don't even believe there even should be a federal Department of Education. Let the money follow the kids. How much better could education be in the inner cities if that money actually went to educating kids and giving the resources to those kids and creating these opportunity zones that Sen. Tim Scott talks about? But no, it's going to their pet projects in blue states. That's the problem. 

HEMMER: The irony about all of this is that the Zoom classes that went from the school to the home were seen by the parents and that blew up the entire operation.