On Friday, Just the News reported that Ohio Republican Representative Michael Rulli will introduce legislation to allow President Trump to shutter the Department of Education through Congress. I can’t imagine that legislation going anywhere, but it’s a great idea.
The article reports:
Trump on Thursday signed an executive order that directed Education Secretary Linda McMahon to begin taking steps to close the department. However, dismantling a federal agency requires an act of Congress.
Rulli told Fox News Digital Thursday that he would be introducing the legislation soon but didn’t specify when.
He said his legislation would allow funding for resources for children with special needs, Title I programs and Pell Grants to come from other federal departments.
A website called Intellectual Takeout reported the following in 2019:
Federal “Highly Qualified Teacher” mandates. Adequate Yearly Progress requirements. Smaller learning communities. Improving Teacher Quality State Grants. Reading First. Early Reading First. The dozens of other federal programs authorized via No Child Left Behind. School Improvement Grants. Race to the Top. Common Core.
All of that has been just since 2000. Over those past two decades, while federal policymakers were busy enacting new federal laws, creating mandates for local school leaders, and increasing the Department of Education’s budget from $38 billion in 2000 (unadjusted for inflation) to roughly $70 billion today, the math and reading performance of American high school students remained completely flat. That is to say, stagnant.
The U.S. is now above the Organization for Economic Cooperation and Development average in reading, but alas, not because U.S. reading performance has improved. Rather, other countries have seen declines in reading achievement, despite increases in education spending.
In mathematics, however, U.S. performance has steadily declined over the past two decades.
Those are the findings from the Programme for International Student Assessment, or PISA exams, released last week.
It seems that the formation of the Department of Education has not resulted in the success of American students.
The article at Intellectual Takeout concludes:
Federal government efforts to improve education have been dismal. Even if there were a constitutional basis for its involvement – which there isn’t – the federal government is simply ill-positioned to determine what education policies will best serve the diverse local communities across our vast nation.
The sooner we can acknowledge that improvements will not come from Washington, the sooner we’re likely to see students flourishing in learning environments that reflect their unique needs and desires.
It really is time to get rid of the Department of Education. They have not fulfilled their purpose, and they are simply a financial drain on the American taxpayer.