(The Center Square) – In a move that will undoubtedly incite legal challenges, President Donald Trump dismantled the U.S. Department of Education via executive order Thursday, sending education policy back to the state level.
The long-promised, controversial order preserves and redistributes the Education department’s responsibilities to other federal agencies and departments. Education Secretary Linda McMahon will facilitate the closure process.
“After 45 years, the United States spends more money on education, by far, than any other country,” Trump said in a pre-signing speech. “But yet, we rank near the bottom of the list in terms of success. It’s an amazing stat. Those are the two stats you don’t want: the most money spent per pupil and you’re at the bottom of the list. And that’s where we are, like it or not, and we’ve been there for a long time.”
Since its founding in 1979, the Education department has spent $3 trillion taxpayer dollars. Meanwhile, U.S. students rank 28 out of 37 member countries in the Organization for Economic Cooperation and Development (OECD), and standardized test scores have remained flat for decades.
Trump claimed that education costs “probably will be half” after the closure process completes, though that is in question depending on how many of the agencies’ programs Trump retains.
Legal experts say that approval from Congress is needed to fully close the department or cut program funding, since the department was codified in 1979 via congressional legislation signed by President Jimmy Carter.
The department ensures compliance with Title IX and federal civil rights laws, collects school data, and oversees the massive federal student loan and grant programs for higher education, including Pell Grants and $1 trillion in outstanding FAFSA loans.
It is also responsible for roughly 10% of the nation’s funding of public education, with the vast majority of funding coming from state and local taxes.
Supporters of the action say Trump is returning education to states, local governments, and parents, rather than mandating a one-size-fits-all approach to childhood education.
“This is the natural, unstoppable evolution of the parental empowerment movement sparked amid the pandemic lockdowns. The states are ready for it, and they’ve been clamoring for it,” American Legislative Exchange Council CEO Lisa Nelson said Thursday. “By putting the states back in charge of this funding, students, families, and teachers will be put first – rather than the bloated bureaucracy in Washington, DC.
But opponents of the order blasted it as an unconstitutional, reckless move that will cause property taxes to spike in every state and could cause struggling schools to close.
Democratic Whip Katherine Clark, D-Mass., accused Trump of “betraying” students and teachers.
“The ripple effects will be devastating: school budgets will be slashed, academic and extracurricular programs will be cut, classroom sizes will grow larger, school libraries will have fewer resources, and students will fall behind,” Clark said. “This twisted version of the Republican Party will stop at nothing to help the rich get richer. And this time, it’s our children who are paying the price.”
A Marist poll in early March showed that 63% of U.S. residents either oppose or strongly oppose getting rid of the U.S. Department of Education, while 37% of residents either strongly support or support abolishing the department.
Not one more tax dollar should be spent at the federal level for anything having to do with the Department of Socialist Indoctrination that now passes for the Department of Education. If any more funds are needed to run what is given over to the States, it should only come out of the 1.5 TRILLION owed the American taxpayers in student loan debt that went not to create new knowledge and wealth, but to use that indoctrination socialist knowledge of failure that divides and conquers us, that will now haunt the minds of the American indoctrinated for at least one more generation. The states should be told that there is this vast amount of treasure to be gleaned to their state educational benefits. All they have to do is go after the deadbeats to pay up or ship out to the nearest work farm or prison. Federal money should be spent only on defense against the very secular socialist world oppression that guys like Putin promote. Smart people come together to form Federal governments to do ONLY that which cannot be accomplished at the individual level,,,like fight wars or control monopolies. The minute the government steps in to do at the individual level what any SELF-governing individual has the obligation to accomplish for himself, is just the beginning of the societal mischief that divides and allows the criminals to rob, steal our wealth and freedoms and conquer what is left of a depleted, fleeced and socialist weakened people.
Anytime something is controlled by bureaucrats, their is fraud, waste, abuse and corruption.
Our children DO NOT belong to the bureaucrats. Our children belong to their parents whose job is to love, protect, support and to teach them.
The Federal Department of Education is filled with political bureaucrats and demand that our children are taught political insanity like the “Critical Race Theory”, the DEI concept and the disgraceful LGBTQ+ lifestyle. Bureaucrats want to confuse our children about their gender, even before they know anything about gender. Lying Democrat bureaucrats are disciples of Satan.
AND that is why teachers unions and dems, HAVE LONG BEEN AGAINST home schooling.
Dang… just more of the lies, cons, deceptions, dishonesty, incompetence and corruption of this treasonous Disgraceful Democrat Party.
Democratic Whip Katherine Clark, D-Mass., accused Trump of “betraying” students and teachers.
“The ripple effects will be devastating: school budgets will be slashed, academic and extracurricular programs will be cut, classroom sizes will grow larger, school libraries will have fewer resources, and students will fall behind,” Clark said. “This twisted version of the Republican Party will stop at nothing to help the rich get richer. And this time, it’s our children who are paying the price.”