Abolish the Department of Education

The Department of Education should be abolished, but not because it has too many bureaucrats, is too intrusive into state and local affairs, doesn’t actually educate a single student, or because U.S. students have science, math, and reading scores below students in many other countries.

The current cabinet-level federal Department of Education began operation in 1980...

After he became president, Reagan tried to eliminate Education Department, and said: “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.”...

[Yet] During Reagan’s first six years as president (when the Senate was controlled by the Republicans) the budget for the Department of Education increased by billions of dollars...

When Donald Trump had a Republican majority during the first two years of his presidency, the Department of Education could easily have been eliminated. Just like Obamacare could have easily been eliminated. But Republicans being Republicans, they failed on both counts....

In 2017, and again in 2021, Representative Thomas Massie (R-Ky.) introduced a bill to abolish the Department of Education. It went nowhere. Now, he has reintroduced the bill (H.R.899), which simply states: “The Department of Education shall terminate on Dec. 31, 2023.”...

This is one of the most important bills ever introduced in Congress. It aims to terminate an entire federal department, not replace it with something else, and not parcel out its activities to other federal agencies...

There is nothing in the Constitution that authorizes the federal government to be involved in any way, shape, or form with the education of anyone. And not only that, the Constitution is silent on the subject of education...

Socialism in Our Schools, by Jim Hollingsworth, American thinker, 26 March 2023.