Meadows Failed Education Agenda Too “Extreme” Even for Tea Party Favorite

Brasstown, NC – Today as Mark Meadows hosted a fundraiser with Majority Leader Eric Cantor in Asheville, his failed education agenda could not escape rejection from even the “special guest” of his own event.

A prominent group backed by Majority Leader Eric Cantor, a tea party favorite, recently called candidates like Meadows too “extreme” over their support for eliminating the U.S. Department of Education.

“Majority Leader Cantor and I might not agree on much, but we both agree that Mark’s failed education plan is too radical for our country,” said Hayden Rogers, Democratic Nominee in North Carolina’s 11th Congressional District. “When a deeply divisive, tea party favorite like Majority Leader Cantor thinks your agenda is too extreme, it might be time to embrace some common sense and move toward the center.”

Meadows has repeatedly stated his support for eliminating the U.S. Department of Education and gutting critical federal programs that aid underserved students in Western North Carolina. In North Carolina alone, $347 million in funding for special needs children and $5.8 million in funding for rural and low-income school districts would be eliminated almost immediately under the Meadows education plan rejected by Majority Leader Cantor.

“A strong public education system is a bipartisan value, and it’s going to take true bipartisan effort to achieve meaningful education reform,” Rogers said. “As Mark continues to hunker down in the ideological trenches with an agenda deemed too extreme by even the extremists in his own party, I’ll continue to work with rational people on both sides of the aisle toward real solutions that ensure all Americans have access to a high-quality education.”