Since its founding in May 1980, the left has challenged the Republican Party to justify its opposition to federal intervention in American education. But now that President-elect Donald Trump’s Department of Government Efficiency has promised to “completely eliminate” the Department of Education, it’s time to flip the script.
The real question is not, “Why should we abolish the Department of Education?” The question is: Can Congress justify funding this inefficient and unconstitutional agency any further?
The answer is simple. “I can’t do it.”
By its own standards, the Department of Education is a dismal failure. The institution’s mission is to “facilitate student achievement and prepare for global competitiveness by promoting educational excellence and ensuring equal access.” But nearly 45 years after its creation under former President Jimmy Carter, math and reading achievement among high school seniors remains stagnant. To make matters worse, the academic achievement gap between America’s poorest and richest students has not closed by four grades since the department’s founding.
>>> President Trump’s choice for secretary of education shows he understands the job.
Such dire consequences come at a staggering cost. Parents and U.S. taxpayers have spent billions of dollars to fund this huge federal agency with more than 4,000 employees. Since 1980, K-12 spending and college costs have doubled in real terms, while all the extra dollars funneled to Washington go to the public, charter, and school districts that actually educate children. It has come at the expense of local schools, including private schools. As Rick Hess of the American Enterprise Institute recently pointed out, more than 1,000 Department of Education employees earn more than $160,000 a year, and nearly 90 of them earn more than four times the average starting teacher salary. He has earned more than $200,000.
But the sector’s failings go far beyond inefficiency and waste. It is a morally bankrupt organization. By centralizing education in the United States, a responsibility that has historically been left to states and local communities, Washington State has created a wedge between parents and schools, often with disastrous results.
In just the past four years, the Biden administration has weaponized the federal government against parents and children in unprecedented ways. At the direction of President Joe Biden, the FBI will exercise First Amendment rights at school board meetings to discuss important issues such as school safety, boys’ restrooms and locker rooms, and sexual content. We created a “threat tag” to monitor parents who only made comments about the issue. In the classroom.
Meanwhile, the Department of Education rewrote Title IX regulations to expand the definition of “sex” discrimination to include “gender identity,” and subsequently transferred enforcement to the Department of Agriculture, which accepted threatened to withhold funding for school meals from educational institutions that refused. radical ideology.
When federal authorities weren’t busy harassing parents or using food to comply with woke policies, the Department of Education displayed utter incompetence. It failed even in basic controls and failed to launch the Free Application for Federal Student Aid, which millions of families rely on to access federal student loans and grants. This is not governance. It’s an insult to American families.
Given these egregious violations, Congress has a moral obligation to work with the Trump administration to dismantle the Department of Education. It is not incumbent on Republicans to justify why this bureaucratic legacy must be abolished. It is the left that argues why this bureaucratic thug should remain.
As expected, many apologists will fear-monger and argue that abolishing the department will harm parents, students, and teachers. But history tells a different story. Education in the United States flourished long before this department existed, and it will flourish again even after this department is gone.
In fact, abolishing or significantly streamlining departments would be a boon to parents and teachers. Parents would have more discretion over their children’s education funding, while teachers and school leaders would grapple with fewer federal mandates and regulations. Students can learn more freely and teachers can teach more freely.
>>> Rejecting Critical Race Theory in State K-12 Laws
Some may argue that it is logically impossible to abolish the department. That’s nonsense. It won’t be easy, but with a clear mission and cooperation from Parliament and a principled government, it can and must be achieved.
The first step is for Congress to pass the Department of Education Reorganization Act to eliminate all duplicative, ineffective, or inappropriate programs, programs that are not under federal control in the first place. The few remaining funds should be returned to states in one lump sum, and state and local leaders should be empowered to allocate funds for legitimate educational purposes under their own laws.
Next, states should make this funding student-centered and portable, giving families the freedom to choose the education options that best meet their needs. Remaining federal responsibilities should be reallocated to the agencies best suited to manage them. For example, funding for the Individuals with Disabilities Education Act should be moved to the Department of Health and Human Services. Student loans are administered by the Treasury Department and data collection is handled by the Census Bureau.
As part of the reconciliation process, Congress should also create a compulsory buyout fund that the president can use to pay early retirement costs for Department of Education employees. In the meantime, all government employees should be required to work in person five days a week.
In short, the same Congress that created the Department of Education can and must abolish it. This is not just something that is possible. It is politically popular, fiscally responsible, and morally imperative. Politicians who are reluctant to take this step owe it to the American people to explain why.
