Legislation filed in the U.S. Senate last month would end the U.S. Department of Education, but it would also redistribute many of its key functions to other federal departments and agencies. Much of the remaining funding would simply be handed to the states as block grants with some strings attached.
Echoing Ronald Reagan’s pledge, President-elect Donald Trump has repeatedly promised to eliminate the controversial department altogether since his 2016 campaign. With his mandate victory the race is on in Congress and among transition officials including Education Secretary nominee Linda McMahon to figure out the logistics of doing it.
Some lawmakers such as Congressman Thomas Massie (R-Ky.) have advocated for years simply abolishing it. His bill H.R. 899, introduced in multiple congresses, is one-sentence long. Other lawmakers, however, hope to preserve certain responsibilities and powers at agencies ranging from Treasury and Labor to Interior and Health and Human Services.
Senator Mike Rounds of South Dakota just introduced the “Returning Education to Our States Act” to abolish the department while keeping many of its functions. “The federal Department of Education has never educated a single student,” said Senator Rounds in a statement. “We all know local control is best when it comes to education.”
Referring to the bill as a “roadmap” for eliminating the scandal-plagued department, The GOP senator touted its “practically rehoming these federal programs in the departments where they belong.” That is “critical as we move into next year,” he said, without elaborating on why those programs should be “rehomed” rather than abolished.
“It’s long past time to end this bureaucratic Department that causes more harm than good,” added Rounds. Since its creation in 1979, it has grown into “an oversized bureaucracy with a budget that’s 449 percent larger than it was at its founding,” he added. Meanwhile, even with soaring budgets, students’ test scores continue to drop.
Trump himself has been a fiery critic of the federal agency, warning that it is “indoctrinating young people with inappropriate racial, sexual, and political material.” Still, in his comments about his education plans, the president-elect has suggested that he would use various powers and funding sources to try to rein in the wokeness.
Among the federal education schemes that would be “rehomed” under Rounds’ legislation are federal student loans, Pell Grants, special-education services, data collection, Indian services, civil-rights mandates, vocational programs, and many more. Much of the rest of the funding for other programs would then be given to state governments to spend.
“For years, I’ve worked toward removing the federal Department of Education,” continued Rounds in the announcement of his new legislation. “I’m pleased that President-elect Trump shares this vision, and I’m excited to work with him and Republican majorities in the Senate and House to make this a reality.”
Democrats were outraged about the bill. “Between naming unqualified billionaire Linda McMahon education secretary and launching dangerous broadsides against education funding on the campaign trail, Trump has made crystal clear he’ll put our public schools at risk on day one,” said DNC “rapid response director” Alex Floyd.
Another bill to abolish the department, dubbed “To terminate the Department of Education” or H.R. 899, is just one sentence long, mandating that the department be terminated by a specific date. With 33 co-sponsors, the bill had broad support among conservative lawmakers, though 60 Republicans joined Democrats to vote it down.
When asked why the bill was needed in an interview with this writer for The New American magazine when he first introduced it 6 years ago, Massie laughed, asking, “how much time do you have?” Ultimately, this should be a bill that unites everyone, including leftists who hate Trump and do not want his administration deciding how children should be educated.
But this is a strategic issue, too. “The left understands that this is where you win or lose — in the schools and in the teaching of the children,” Massie explained. But with Trump heading to the White House and a non-leftist nominee for Education Secretary, even liberals should support ending the department, he said.
Of course, neither bill is going to be signed into law by Joe Biden before Trump is sworn in. However, with Republicans in control of both houses of Congress and the White House, it is likely that major swaths of the federal education bureaucracy will either be cut or moved to other agencies. Senate Democrats are expected to try to filibuster.
The federal government has no constitutional authority to be involved in education. As such, Senator Rounds’ bill redistributing federal education programs to other agencies preserves unconstitutional schemes. The bill may even make it harder to keep track of how much federal money is being wasted on unconstitutional federal meddling.
Instead of merely breaking up the department, Republicans would be better off ending all federal involvement in education, as the Constitution demands. Pragmatically, there is also no reason why the feds, with well over $30 trillion in debt and some $200 trillion in unfunded liabilities, should give “grants” to the states. It is past time to shut it all down!
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