GOP Senate candidate: Department of Education only created to help 'little Black girls'​

The Montana U.S. Senate race took a turn when controversial businessman Tim Sheehy said that the U.S. should eliminate the Department of Education because it was turning children into slaves.

The Huffington Post this week flagged a report from the Daily Montanan, which revealed the comments from the Republican candidate at a campaign stop in Billings.

“We have a Department of Education, which I don’t think we need any more,” said Sheehy, on audio clips obtained by the Montanan. “It should go away. That’ll save us $30 billion right there.”

“We formed that department so little Black girls could go to school down South and we could have integrated schooling. We don’t need that anymore,” he continued.

The plan comes from Project 2025, which calls for the elimination of the DoE as well as other moves that would overhaul the federal government.

A National Education Association analysis said Project 2025 would “gut” education funding and hurt vulnerable students, HuffPo cited.

The report also said, "Kids Count data show 89.6% of students in kindergarten through 12th grade attend public school in Montana."

In another campaign stop last year, Sheehy said that young people in the U.S. have "been indoctrinated for too long." He went on to blame abortion.

Sheehy said at another campaign stop last year of young women voters that “abortion is their No. 1 concern. It’s all they want to talk about. They are single-issue voters.”

Republicans began supporting the anti-education crusade when President Jimmy Carter promoted the Education Secretary to a Cabinet-level position.

“We formed that department so little Black girls could go to school down south, and we could have integrated schooling. We don’t need that anymore," said Sheehy.

Montana gets about $40 million from the Department of Education just for students with disabilities alone. It's only 15% of the overall education budget, said Lance Melton, head of the Montana School Boards Association.

“Fairly significant harm would be implemented in Montana’s public schools if we suddenly snapped our fingers and said, ‘No more federal funding of education,’” he said.

Sen. Jon Tester (D-MT) is in the fight of his political life against Sheehy.

“Tim Sheehy doesn’t give a damn about our public schools. I’m a proud product of Montana’s public schools and a former public school teacher—and I’ll fight to protect them with all I’ve got,” he said on X, formerly Twitter.

It isn't the first time Sheehy has been caught using racially charged language when he thinks the cameras aren't on. During a September event, Sheehy accused Native Americans of being "drunk at 8:00 A.M."

Read the full report here.