#26 - Disband Education Department (opinion)
There are a number of published opinions about abolishing the Education Department (ED). Most of the articles go into very logical reasons, with extensive and complex explanations, about why the ED violated this or are antipathetic to that. Probably all good reasons. But, let’s look at it from 30,000 feet.
The original purpose of the education function in the US was:
Standardize Education across all the states. - The intent was to ensure that a state would not fall behind other states (which would be unfair to residents of that state) and to provide some continuity from state to state (you could start in one state and finish in another and expect “standardized” results.
Collect Statistics - There was no vehicle for collecting and publishing statistics to help understand the dynamics of education and develop new practices and know-how.
Good Practices - There was no place to collect, vet, test, talk about and disseminate good practices in teaching.
Later, about the middle of the Nineteenth Century (1800s), progressive education concepts were born and the ED began to use its power to influence education through grants and regulations at the Federal level. It also acted as a financial provider to ensue poorer people had the same opportunities as everyone else. Later, the ED advocated for issues beyond the financial and statistical aspects of education to support different ideals and philosophies like equity or race.
The Constitution regards education as a state and local function. Education was not an issue until the middle of the Nineteenth Century when proponents advocated for a national point of view and a cabinet-level position. The ED was born in 1867 and then was de-funded in 1868 and downgraded to an office-level agency. It wasn’t until the Carter administration in the mid-1970s that proponents’ call for re-establishing a cabinet-level department was acted upon.
A reasonable solution would now seem to be separating influence, money and regulation from standardization, statistics and best-practices. Translated: shrink ED drastically and block its ability to fund, influence and regulate education.
In accounting, it’s a good practice to match, as much as possible, revenues and expenses to projects, departments or people. Collecting tax, sending it somewhere and then somewhere else and then giving it out in grants separates the source and recipient. Responsibility sort of evaporates. Let’s send the whole grant process back to states and localities where it can be operated and monitored directly and locally.
The ED should be limited to direct involvement in academics. The actual process of teaching students. It should avoid money, regulation and influence.
Besides all the reasons stated, reducing the footprint of the ED would save us a lot of money - billion$. We need to do that, not just in education, but across the boards.
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