Liberal PAC says Kelly Craft wants to get rid of KY Dept of Ed. Here are her statements.

American Bridge 21st Century, a Democratic-aligned PAC that specializes in opposition research on Republicans, released a 7-second video on Twitter Monday with GOP gubernatorial hopeful Kelly Craft saying she wanted to “dismantle the Kentucky Department of Education.”

“I will tell you that one of the very first pieces of action as governor – the Kentucky Department of Education will be dismantled,” Craft said in the clip.

The crowd, attending a Versailles campaign event where protesters also showed up to decry Craft’s recent opioid ‘empty seat’ ad, applauded Craft’s remark.

She made a similar remark at the same event, American Bridge 21st Century pointed out on Monday evening.

“We must hold the Kentucky Department of Education accountable. The only way to do that is to dismantle it through a piece of legislation and start over,” Craft said.

But there’s more in the audio of the event suggesting that Craft, a former U.S. ambassador to the United Nations under former President Donald Trump, doesn’t actually want to get rid of the department.

“We must revamp this entire department, and when I’m governor and I appoint people to the state school board, I want those individuals to be Senate-confirmed,” Craft said. The Senate is currently controlled by a massive Republican majority.

Liberal PAC says Kelly Craft wants to get rid of KY Dept of Ed. Here are her statements.

The Craft campaign initially responded by saying that Craft wanted to dismantle the “current board,” as Democratic Gov. Andy Beshear did when he took over after defeating former Republican governor Matt Bevin.

“No one can hide that our current State Board of Education and Department of Education are a mess - pushing woke agendas in our schools. I’ll dismantle our current board and start over. I’ll empower parents, send more resources to the classroom, and end the woke nonsense being pushed in our schools,” Craft said in a statement.

In a second statement Monday, the Craft campaign doubled down: “Kelly said she will dismantle the Kentucky Department of Education and revamp the entire department and replace it, along with the state school board, with people who empower parents and will make sure teachers teach the ABC’s not the CRT’s.”

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Even if Craft became governor and wanted to dismantle KDE, she couldn’t do it. The department is a separate agency, not under control of the Governor’s office, according to KDE spokesperson Toni Konz Tatman.

KDE has 385 Frankfort-based employees and 698 that work for the Kentucky School for the Blind, Kentucky School for the Deaf and one of the state’s 50 Area Technology Centers.

Kentucky Democrats were quick to criticize the clip. The official party tweeted out that “the Republicans’ extreme agenda would destroy public education as we know it in Kentucky.”

“Now that we know Kelly Craft’s views, every other Republican candidate should make it clear where they stand: with our public schools or with the GOP’s war on public education,” the party asked.

The campaign of Somerset Mayor Alan Keck, who is also running for the GOP nomination for governor, responded to Craft’s comments directly.

“To suggest, as it appears Kelly Craft has, that dismantling this system is the answer to its problems is not leadership at all... in America, we don’t run from our problems. We tackle them head-on.”

Unlike other Republicans, Keck has sided with Beshear on some education issues, saying that he would directly fund teacher pay raises within reason – Republican leaders in the legislature argue that recent increases to SEEK funding, which allowed some school boards to give teacher raises, are enough.