Most schools are either already out for the Thanksgiving holiday or headed for a break later this week. As the education system nationwide hits the pause button, it’s worth taking a moment to consider what lies ahead for the US Department of Education (ED) and its promised demise at the hands of the incoming Trump administration.
The last time the Department of Education faced the chopping block was in 1982, when President Ronald Reagan attempted to dismantle the entity. Obviously, he was not successful, and one wonders if President Trump will be able to accomplish what The Gipper could not. The answer lies in the details. Here are a few things that might help flesh out why Reagan’s effort failed and what could stand in the way once again:
Much of what the ED does is mandated by legislation that has been passed into law since its inception in 1980. Some of it even existed before the department's founding. For example, the Smith-Hughes Act of 1917 instituted federal engagement in vocational education that created a national board of oversight to develop curricula. In 1944, the G.I. Bill was passed, which provides funds for the college education of veterans. Then, the federal student loan program came on the scene under the Higher Education Act of 1965. The Basic Educational Opportunity Grant program arrived in 1972, and in 1975, Congress passed the Individuals with Disabilities in Education Act. More recently, in 2015, funding for schools that serve low-income students became law in the name of the Every Student Succeeds Act. This list goes on and on, but you get the picture.
Wiping out the ED will not end all these programs. They will simply have to shift to another federal agency. So where would they go? Good question. According to US News & World Report, a great deal of shuffling would have to take place. They suggest the disabilities act could be turned over to the Department of Health & Human Services. The vocational program could be run by the Department of Labor, and some of the grant programs could be sent off to the Treasury. Thus, the central question becomes, is the Trump initiative really thinning out a morbidly obese federal government by shuttering the Department of Education? The answer is a definitive no.
Education and Forking Over Federal Funds to the States
It sounds like a good idea to give federal education dollars to the states. However, one must ask what the bright blue territories would do with all this new cash. Might it be used to pioneer a fresh golden age of American education, or to double down on what many see as cultural indoctrination?
Adam Ellwanger wrote an article in RealClearEducation outlining some of the current failures in the American education system:
“When these activist-teachers enter classrooms, they often abandon their duty to transmit America's culture, knowledge, and values. Instead, they teach students to disdain their nation, its people, its past, and its way of life. This undermines social cohesion and deprives disadvantaged students of the tools they need to succeed.”
These issues aren’t likely to go away if progressive areas have more dollars to fuel their values because, as we know, politics is downstream from culture. Thus, giving these folks more money isn’t going to fix this problem: In fact, it may even exacerbate it. Perhaps federal funding could be doled out conditionally, but then there’s the issue of having to police the compliance necessary to ensure the money is used properly.
Progressive media outlet Vox brought up another reality that concerns those who seek to overhaul education. Quoting Jon Valant, director of the Brookings Institution’s Brown Center on Education Policy, they made the point: “[O]nly about 10 percent of federal public education funding flows to state boards of education, according to Valant. The rest comes primarily from tax sources, so states and local school districts are already controlling much of the funding structure of their specific public education systems.”
Politics Rules the Roost
Pure political machinations must be considered when effectuating the end of the Department of Education. The administration would need a 60-vote majority to make that happen, which it will not have in the 119th Congress. Trump's Senate allies could also make an effort to end the filibuster, but that’s a game of Russian Roulette.
Like it or not, a lot of education policy is federal law, already baked in and not going away anytime soon. What concerns President Trump and those who support him are the social justice and woke elements of education currently impressed on America’s young people. It doesn’t seem like giving local education an extra 10% each year is going to fix that. Nor does it appear likely that blue states would take the extra dollars and use them wisely. And getting Congress to dump the entire ED isn’t going to happen, either. Without a doubt, this is a heavy lift, and Trump’s people will have to come up with a workable solution because the roadblocks that lie ahead are not surmountable with a pen and a phone.
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