Multiple Republican presidential candidates made it clear at this week’s debate that the Department of Education is in danger if they are elected.
“Let’s shut down the head of the snake, the Department of Education,” Vivek Ramaswamy said. “Take that $80 billion, put it in the hands of parents across this country.”
Conservatives see the department, which has more than 4,400 employees and in its current form dates back to 1979 after first being established in 1867, as a prime example of Washington’s meddling in Americans’ lives. The time has come to “shut down the Federal Department of Education,” former Vice President Mike Pence said Wednesday.
But what would it mean to actually shutter the massive agency?
How could the department be eliminated?
Killing the Department of Education (DOE) would be easier said than done.
Conservatives have said since the creation of the department they want to get rid of it. From President Ronald Reagan and his Education secretary to President Trump and his own, Republicans have decried the department’s existence but failed to abolish it.
That is because the decision to do so is not only up to the president and would have to go through Congress.
“There would have to be some legislation to specifically outline this, but I do think it would need to have the support of the executive branch and, obviously, this is a Cabinet-level agency, so I think having the president — would have to take a leadership role and help to make sure that the proposal is carefully crafted,” said Jonathan Butcher, the Will Skillman senior research fellow in education policy at The Heritage Foundation, which supports nixing the DOE.
Rep. Thomas Massie (R-Ky.) proposed such legislation in 2021 and reintroduced it earlier this year.
“Unelected bureaucrats in Washington, D.C., should not be in charge of our children’s intellectual and moral development,” Massie said two years ago. “States and local communities are best positioned to shape curricula that meet the needs of their students. Schools should be accountable. Parents have the right to choose the most appropriate educational opportunity for their children, including home school, public school or private school.”
DOE did not respond to The Hill’s request for comment.
DOE’s duties would be absorbed by other federal agencies
DOE has an enormous number of responsibilities, including handling student loans, investigating complaints against schools and tracking education progress across the country.
None of the 2024 candidates during Wednesday’s debate detailed how they would handle eliminating it, but conservatives have longed to see many of its tasks either completely eliminated or absorbed into other departments.
“For example, the Office of Civil Rights at the Department of Education. I think that any duplicate responsibilities that it shares with the Department of Justice should be eliminated, and then the rest of that office should go to the Department of Justice,” Butcher said.
Got to make these people as dumb as possible so they’ll believe anything
That plan is clearly working flawlessly in many parts of this country. There are more people alive today that believe in mythological deities, or that the earth is flat than at any other point in human history.
By population percentage we we seem going in the right direction, but the same old bullshit continues to be effective at pulling the wool over the eyes of the average rubes who are coopted by religion or social dogma before education can get to them.
There are more people alive today that believe in mythological deities, or that the earth is flat than at any other point in human history.
In absolute terms? Maybe. There’s more people alive today than there ever have been.
In relative terms, i.e. fraction of believers to non-believers? There is no way in Hera’s great grassy brassiere I’m believing that without sauce.
The GOP is a terrorist organization.
Well education is still all stated funded so it would look like it did back before it existed in 1979, and not much different than today, probably better. There’s many national departments that are unneeded and could easily be eliminated.
Yeah, let’s remove one of the foundational guardrails that is preventing states from teaching straight up religious fundamentalism in the classroom.
If you don’t think that is the point behind this, then I have a bridge to sell you chief…
It worked for 200 years prior. And the state of our schools the past 20 years haven’t been anything to brag about.
I’m not looking backwards, I’m looking forwards. The state of education has declined SPECIFICALLY because of this kind of Republican led obstructionism.
You think removing (the already seriously lacking) guardrails is going to make the problem go away? You’re wrong, and that is simply one of the stupidest fucking takes I have heard from anybody that is capable of using a keyboard.
We are getting outclassed by countries who have been able to leave the kind of circle jerking that passes for politics in this country behind in the post WWII period of economic acceleration while we were naval gazing and Reaganizing.
No offense, but if you think removing ANY impediments that are preventing full chistisian nationalist minority rule in this country is a good idea then please do the rest of us a favor and don’t vote…fuck.
Don’t worry, the shithole states are doing their best to bring us back to the days when a nine year old who couldn’t afford school could get themselves a job at the local meat packing plant. Sadly, I think most of the textile mills have gone out of business, so those won’t be an option any more.
It worked for 200 years prior
No, it didn’t. For most of that time most kids did not actually get an education.
Depends on the state you live in. If you live in a blue state, you might see some improvement. If you’re in a red state, you can expect even worse educational outcomes than they are already seeing. Remember, the Texas GOP platform in 2012 included this gem.
We oppose the teaching of Higher Order Thinking Skills (HOTS) (values clarification), critical thinking skills and similar programs that are simply a relabeling of Outcome-Based Education (OBE) (mastery learning) which focus on behavior modification and have the purpose of challenging the student’s fixed beliefs and undermining parental authority.
They oppose teaching critical thinking skills or anything that might challenge a students beliefs. Do you really want people like them deciding what will be taught in schools and how?
They already do. All text books sold to schools In the US have to be approved by some review board in Texas currently. I don’t think it’s a department of education thing, but it would certainly reduce thier power.
That’s because Texas buys loads of school books and the publishing companies don’t want to make multiple editions. Getting rid of a federal agency won’t do anything to change that
“Unelected bureaucrats in Washington, D.C., should not be in charge of our children’s intellectual and moral development,”
So they say…
Afghanistan
