President Donald Trump’s order to begin dismantling the US Department of Education, which he’s expected to sign this week, is a welcome step toward shrinking government and shedding woke policies.
Yet it’s just a step: He’ll need Congress to fully scrap the agency.
And to rethink (or end!) programs that now automatically shovel out cash to benefit blue states and teachers unions.
Recall that the DOE was born of a crass political bargain: Back in 1976, the nation’s largest teachers union, the National Education Association, offered its endorsement to obscure presidential hopeful Jimmy Carter if he agreed to push one through.
Carter agreed, got NEA’s backing and won first the Democratic nomination and then the general and got cracking on making good.
So DOE launched in 1980, and has been growing ever since.
Yet even Al Shanker, head of the other main teachers union, the American Federation of Teachers, noted that appeal for such a department was based on the “mythology” of what it could accomplish.
And he worried about handing the feds control over local schools.
Shanker proved right: There’s no evidence the agency’s creation boosted student achievement one bit.
But it did lead to an army of 4,400 bureaucrats making up rules and guidances — DEI requirements and other mandates benefiting teachers and Democrats — and strong-arming localities to adopt them.
That cash has also done much harm; at the college level it’s fueled soaring tuition — even as it’s led to soaring spending at all levels to bloat school bureaucracies that ensure compliance with DOE regulations.
Yes, most DOE outlays are pass-along grants authorized by Congress.
That’s why Trump must get lawmakers behind him to not only rescind the legislation that created the agency, but to reconsider the substance of Uncle Sam’s impact on education.
For K-12, shift funds into vouchers that parents can use to send their kids to the schools of their choice — and push states to boost the number of private schools, as a condition of any federal aid.
Boosting competition in this way can only benefit education.
And when lefties, unions and other vested interests scream that Trump and fellow Republicans are aiming to hurt kids and set back education, ask them to show the evidence.
Point out the harm the agency’s done, such as via DOE’s Diversity & Inclusion Council. And how nationalizing education through such an agency was a top priority for Ku Klux Klan in the 1920s.
Educational policy should be determined by those with the biggest stake in it — parents — and the state and local leaders who run their schools. Not the feds.
Give those with the greatest stake in education their deserved say.
Competition and parental choice are the keys not only to improving student achievement, but getting the most bang for the buck.
This story originally appeared on NYPost
