Mark Robinson and Michele Morrow express support for rejecting $1.5B+ in education funding, abolishing US Department of Education

Republican gubernatorial candidate Lt. Gov. Mark Robinson and state superintendent hopeful Michele Morrow are both facing criticism after they voiced support for an idea that would take more than $1.5 billion out of the state’s education coffers.

WRAL recently obtained video from a speech Robinson made at a private event near Asheville on July 10 where he told attendees he would like to abolish the U.S. Department of Education and wouldn’t accept federal education funding.

Responding to a supporter’s question about “school bureaucracy at the federal level,” Robinson said he would like to see the state opt out of receiving federal education funds.

“If I had my way about it, they’d send the check and I’d say, ‘Oh, no, you can have it. I don’t want your money,” he said. “Your money comes with too many rotten obligations. We don’t want it.”

“Honestly, come on. There should be no federal department of education,” Robinson said.

The idea of getting rid of the U.S. Department of Education is now a relatively common one among Republicans and is also one of the top plans highlighted in the “Project 2025” blueprint for a second Trump term.

MAGA extremist insurrectionist Michele Morrow told WRAL in a recent interview that she would also support getting the federal government’s money out of our schools. 

Morrow said that if she’s elected, one of her first moves will be to “audit” the NC Department of Public Instruction’s (NCDPI) federally funded programs to see if they contribute to student achievement. If she determines that they don’t, she said she’ll tell the federal government to “Back off” because “we don’t need your money, and we’re going to do it just as a state.”

According to NCDPI, in the 2023-24 school year, the state received around $1.67 billion in federal education money.

Here’s a breakdown of those funds:

• $688 million supported lower-income students and the schools that serve them.
• $531 million went to school nutrition programs.
• $380 million served students with special needs.
• $43 million supported career and technical education.
• $33 million funded other programs, including substance abuse and mental health care.

An NCDPI spokesperson told WRAL that the state’s nutrition funding comes from the USDA and isn’t necessarily tied to education funding, so, under Robinson/Morrow leadership, the state may be able to keep that funding and reject the rest. If that happened, the state would have a $1.1 billion hole in education spending.

WRAL contacted both campaigns to ask how they would fill in the $1.1 billion gap and, unsurprisingly, neither had an answer.

In a statement sent to WRAL, Attorney General Josh Stein called Robinson “the anti-public education candidate.”

Robinson “has already declared that he would ‘slash’ public education funding in North Carolina, and now he is pledging to forfeit billions of dollars of our own tax money that is used to educate our kids,” he said. “I’m in this race to defend public schools; my opponent just wants to defund them.”

Mo Green, Morrow’s Democratic opponent in the superintendent race, also criticized the idea, saying the state’s public schools need more funding for services, especially for lower-income students who currently benefit greatly from the federal funds.

“Robinson and my opponent would support taking millions more of our taxpayer funds and funnel them into private and religious schools for the wealthy,” Green said. “Their goal is to defund public education, and I will never support that.”