It would be unfair, indeed incorrect, to blame our children’s continued educational shortcomings on any one entity. There is plenty of blame to go around. In a nutshell, schools forgot that their #1 responsibility is to help students learn HOW to think, not WHAT to think. To make things worse, parents forgot their responsibility to demand that schools remain laser focused on that #1 responsibility. Today’s high school students are taught little about how their government functions or how they might influence the direction of government going forward. All the while the Education Department (ED) has continued to siphon ever larger amounts of taxpayer dollars down bureaucratic rabbit holes, and away from students, where it would do the most good.
According to the Heritage Foundation, since 1950 there has been a 100% increase in the number of students attending public schools. During that same time the number of teachers has increased 243%. The number of non-teaching staff during that same time, mostly administrative positions, increased 709%! (Perhaps the reason for the explosion in non-teaching staff is the mountain of additional paperwork required by the ED). At the time of the report only 47.5% of school employees were teachers.
A quality education is essential to the success of a free nation. When education fails, it not only fails students, it also ultimately fails every sector of society. Since being split out of the Dept. of Health, Education, and Welfare in 1979, the ED has been an abject failure. Many believe President Carter created the ED as a payback to teachers’ unions regarded as being a major reason he was elected President in 1976. There isn’t a single positive policy outcome the ED can hang its hat on since its formation. All available evidence suggests we would have saved trillions of dollars, and our children would be better educated, had Carter lost that election.
Are our kids failing because we aren’t spending enough to educate them? You decide. As of September of 2024, the ED employed 4,200 people. Its budget was a quarter of a TRILLION dollars! The highest paid employee was paid a salary of $254,000. The department’s average salary was $144,000. Let that percolate in your brain for a minute while you recognize the average salary for teachers in 2024 was about $71,000. That means our local teachers, those charged with educating our children, are paid less than one half of that of bureaucrats sitting in a cubicle in D.C. That our government thinks that is appropriate goes a long way toward proving the failures at the ED. We currently spend more money to educate our kids than any other country in the world. At the same time our kids global report cards reveal a steady decline in competitiveness since the ED was established. Defenders of the ED would suggest that is a mere coincidence. An occasional drop in comparative numbers might be coincidental. More than 40 years of gradual, persistent, decline signals a trend.
Having said all of the above, I am not in favor of abolishing the ED. Doing so would require an unlikely act of Congress to complete. I am in favor of changing its function. The EDs current responsibilities could be handled by other government departments. Treasury could handle student loans, Agriculture could fulfill the “free” lunch program, etc. The ED might become a valuable asset if it were to act as a liaison between the states. as opposed to a Sword of Damocles hanging over their heads. Think about it. We have 50 individual, well defined, states. Every one of which has a desire to see their constituent’s children succeed. I can think of no sector in our nation where Federalism, as envisioned in our Constitution, could be more effective.
It is insane to think that 4,200 bureaucrats ensconced in an office building in D.C. are better able to decide what is good for our children than their parents, teachers, and local administrators. President Trump should establish new responsibilities for the ED that would reduce it to an information gatherer and disseminator. He should then appoint Elon Musk to staff and develop a budget to achieve the new, narrowly defined, tasks. The 50 states would immediately become independent education labs, free to employ a variety of innovative ideas. They would still receive federal funds to help them establish any systems they design to educate the children of their state.
At the end of every school year, schools would be required to send their test results to the ED data hub. The ED would analyze that data to identify which state(s), and which school(s) within the state, were most successful at teaching math, for instance. The ED would be responsible for gathering materials used by the successful schools. It would then organize the material and forward the results to the educational leaders of each state. This compilation of data would be completed for all required areas of study. That would give each state direct access to the most successful methods and practices available to their teaching professionals.
Trump should “redefine” the responsibilities at the ED. Because the above-mentioned recommendations do not abolish it, Trump would likely not need an act of Congress to implement his changes. It is time to put an end to presidential, or ED, theories like No Child Left Behind, Critical Race Theory, and Common Core, that have wasted our children’s precious educational time and our teacher’s expertise. We need to replace those unfounded theories with actual techniques that are proven in the field. Our children deserve nothing less. The same can be said about hard-working Americans whose taxes are being squandered by a failed government department. All said, other than the ED employees who would lose their jobs, nobody else would be negatively impacted. Albert Einstein is credited, correctly or not, as saying: “The definition of insanity is doing the same thing over and over and expecting a different result.” Over the last 40 years the ED has blown through trillions of taxpayer dollars without a single success. It hasn’t educated one child or championed nary one theory that proved to help our school students. When the ED was founded, our kids ranked near the top of the global competitive scorecard. Today they rank near the bottom. It is, indeed, insane to expect that to change in the future.
Thank you for taking the time to read my latest thoughts. I hope you found it worth the effort. Bob
A lot of work to be done. Such messes created over the years do not go away quickly.
Sandra,
Republican Presidents have threatened to abolish the Educ. Dept. all the way back to Reagan. Trump is the first to actually give it a try. Democrats see teacher unions and their members as a solid voting bloc that contributes tens of millions of dollars to their campaign coffers. The fact is that nobody has identified a single thing the Dept. has done to further the education of a single child. The Dept. has received trillions of taxpayer dollars while our children fall ever farther from the top spot they enjoyed when the Dept. was launched. There can be little dispute that this Dept. has been an abysmal failure. While I agree it will take some time to rectify this problem, it is time we reroute those dollars directly to the local people who know best how to use them. Thank you for taking the time to read and comment on my thoughts. Bob
You hit another series of bullseyes. 🎯
If only the teachers’ unions were not so powerful while simultaneously being so focused on their survival instead of giving their students an excellent education.. 😮💨 [sigh]
Vicki,
At some point, teachers are going to have to push back against their union. It sounds counterintuitive, but it must happen. While most of us support good teachers, they are being lumped into the insanity of their unions, which many of us don’t support. I have had countless debates with teachers on this topic. We usually agree on a number of topics. The debate ends when I suggest that unions are keeping good teachers from being paid more. Unions strive to bring everyone to the average. They save the jobs of weak teachers and discourage the efforts of excellent teachers. We must identify the best teachers and compensate them to work with those who are not so great. The union will fight paying different teachers different salaries. Let the fight continue without the Educ. Dept. Thank you for your comments. Bob
As usual, your perspective is enlightening! Schools & teachers would be better served to receive more of the federal $$, instead of enriching those in Washington who don’t make any impact on students, so that teachers wouldn’t have to reach deep into their own pockets to subsidize the supplies for their students in their classrooms! And I applaud those teachers who have done just that !
As usual, your perspective is enlightening! Schools & teachers would be better served to receive more of the federal $$, instead of enriching those in Washington who don’t make any impact on students, so that teachers wouldn’t have to reach deep into their own pockets to subsidize the supplies for their students in their classrooms! And I applaud those teachers who have done just that !
Lynn,
Is your goal to do a better job of educating children? If so, it makes zero sense to cut a check for a quarter trillion dollars and let bureaucrats siphon a significant percent for administrative costs. Local school administrators, teachers, and school boards, would do a better job with those funds. If they don’t, voters can remove them, except the teachers. So far, nobody has produced evidence that the Educ. Dept. has done anything to advance the education of a single child. It is time for this boondoggle to go the way of the horse and buggy. As always, I appreciate your taking the time to read and comment on my thoughts. Bob