Should the US government terminate the Department of Education?
This bill seeks to terminate the Department of Education, which would heavily cut federal influence and involvement in education. It shifts full responsibility for curriculum, funding, and policy decisions to the states.
Sponsor: Rep. Thomas Massie (Republican, Kentucky, District 4)
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Opponents say
• "Millions of Americans rely on federal support from the Department of Education to open doors along their educational journeys—from the nearly 1 million infants, toddlers, and preschoolers with disabilities or developmental delays who have access to early intervention and special education services through the Individuals with Disabilities Education Act (IDEA); to the 26 million pre-K–12 students supported by federal Title I funding; to the 43 million people with federal student loans." Source: The Century Foundation
• "The divisive culture war language ("ending radical indoctrination in K-12 schooling") used by the administration and its allies to justify its actions does not obscure the true aims of Trump’s agenda—and the very real damage these moves will inflict, especially on the millions of low-income students across the country. [...] Ninety percent of U.S. students and 95% of students with disabilities learn in our public schools. Students across the country benefit from programs run by the Department of Education. Eliminating the department, National Education Association President Becky Pringle said this week, was equivalent to "giving up on our future." [...] When the White House talks about dismantling Department of Education programs, it uses phrases such as "back to the states" to obscure the fact that students— especially lower-income students in rural, suburban, and urban communities and students with disabilities—will lose big. The Department of Education is a critical champion in enforcing federal statutes prohibiting discrimination and ensuring every student has access to an education that will help them reach their full potential. Dismantling it means defunding programs that feed, educate, and protect our most vulnerable and underserved students, and leaving many families fearful and anxious and communities reeling." Source: National Education Association
• "Ending a federal role in education would accelerate other policy shifts we are already starting to see. Some states are already making the Bible part of their curriculum. Some states are already refusing to address race, gender or other disparities; are eliminating teaching about slavery or antisemitism; and are banning many canonical books. Another consequence of ending the Department of Education could be the creation of a wide system of school vouchers, giving parents a chance to use them for private or parochial schools. Such a system is often referred to as “school choice,” but it would limit the choice of those families left behind and strip public schools of funding. Under such a system, tens of millions of public dollars would be taken from public education to support private education. The students and teachers left behind would get the “short end of the stick,” and schools across the U.S. would be transformed, perhaps no longer able to fund a full day of education." Source: The Hechinger Report
Proponents say
• "The Department of Education began operating in 1980. On September 24, 1981, in his Address to the Nation on the Program for Economic Recovery, President Ronald Reagan said, “As a third step, we propose to dismantle two Cabinet Departments, Energy and Education. Both Secretaries are wholly in accord with this. Some of the activities in both of these departments will, of course, be continued either independently or in other areas of government. There's only one way to shrink the size and cost of big government, and that is by eliminating agencies that are not needed and are getting in the way of a solution. Now, we don't need an Energy Department to solve our basic energy problem. As long as we let the forces of the marketplace work without undue interference, the ingenuity of consumers, business, producers, and inventors will do that for us. Similarly, education is the principal responsibility of local school systems, teachers, parents, citizen boards, and State governments. By eliminating the Department of Education less than 2 years after it was created, we cannot only reduce the budget but ensure that local needs and preferences, rather than the wishes of Washington, determine the education of our children." Source: Rep. Thomas Massie (Republican, Kentucky, District 4), the sponsor of this bill
• "With around 4,100 employees, the Education Department is the smallest Cabinet department. The federal government also furnishes a relatively tiny amount of K-12 funding, averaging only about 8.5 percent of public school revenues for the last five decades. But the feds need relatively little money to exert power. A state might spend $20 billion, but if headlines say it risks even a few million dollars by bucking federal rules, that looks big. So even though the ESSA is a release from NCLB, Washington retains the ability to take greater control. The achievement impact of federal dollars is hard to isolate, but during the NCLB era, National Assessment of Educational Progress math and reading scores generally rose, though they mainly stagnated for the oldest children. NCLB’s obsessive focus on those subjects might have helped spur some improvements. But education is about more than standardized tests, or reading and math, and NCLB crowded out many subjects and instructional approaches. It also likely kneecapped the standards-based reform movement that bore it. The movement originated in the states, and it might have been more sustainable had "laboratories of democracy" been able to adjust to their own needs and cultures. Eliminating the Department of Education would only soften these problems." Source: CATO Institute
- Rep. Massie Reintroduces H.R. 899 to Abolish the Federal Department of Education (Press Release)
- What does the US Department of Education do? (Brookings Institute)
- Federal Role in Education (Department of Education)
- The Roles of Federal and State Governments in Education (FindLaw)
- How USA education measures up worldwide (The University of Kansas)
- What it would mean to eliminate the Education Department (NPR)
- Rep. Thomas Massie’s Largest Donors (OpenSecrets)
