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In regard to the Department of Education

 From the Dispatch, March 14, 2025:

Despite being associated more with K-12 education, a far greater share of the department’s resources go toward higher education. The Education Department is charged with administering student loans and distributing the Pell Grant, which awards low- and middle-income students up to $7,400 per year toward college tuition. The former is by far its largest role: The department oversees $1.5 trillion in student loan debt for more than 40 million people—a job that required about one-third of its workforce prior to the administration’s cuts. 

“The Department of Education is basically a mega bank with a small K-12 policy shop attached,” Frederick M. Hess, the director of education policy studies at the American Enterprise Institute, told TMD. “Far and away, the biggest part of what it does is handle financial aid for folks going to college.”

The cash that is distributed to K-12 schools through the Department of Education is primarily via two main programs: Title I and the Individuals with Disabilities Act. The former provides supplementary funding to low-income districts, while the latter ensures that students with disabilities can access education. Smaller directives include funding charter schools and initiatives focused on teacher quality and class size reduction.

But despite generally making up a small percentage of public schools’ overall budgets, the federal funding has allowed Washington to exert influence over curricula. Beginning in 1994, the Education Department began using funds to pressure states to adopt uniform standards and testing in math, reading, and science. This strategy culminated in the 2009 creation of Race to the Top, a $4.35 billion grant program that encouraged states to use the controversial Common Core Standards and accompanying tests.

This truth is known to those of us in higher ed--a dirty little secret, I would say--but not most other citizens. It seems that the duties could be placed into other departments, such as Health and Human Services. 

I don't have a strong feeling about the issue of "saving" or "destroying" the Department of Education; putting a woman known as the leader of professional wrestling seems pretty weird. At least Betsy DeVos had a background in education, even if mostly private. But let's not mourn that so many children will be affected and uneducated. Public Education is doing a terrible job overall of getting our children where they should be with literacy and numeracy skills, to say nothing of critical thinking and general knowledge.  Local control, with of course guarantees for non-discrimination, couldn't hurt because P.Ed. is already mostly under local control--of bureaucrats, unions, and interest groups. 

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