US DOE should be eliminated?

[JimFoxvog]

i agree with those who believe eliminating the U.S. DOE should be soberly considered.

The U.S. DOE represents a new topic, if anyone is interested.

I'm interested. Which functions do you think should be ended?

What the DOE actually does in rough order of priority and budget is:

• Administer student loans and Pell Grants for the nearly 50 million Americans who have student loans and get Pell Grants.
• Administering federal funding for K12 education which is mostly Title 1 grants to school districts with high percentages of poor students
• Oversee compliance with Congressionally mandated laws relating to education which mostly relate to Special Education, Disabilities, Homeless children, and Title 9 sports.
• Collects data on educational performance and other education related statistics around the country

[Szdfan]

It's the State DOE that has most direct impact on my job and how and what I teach. The US DOE does influence things and there are certain federal regulations and reporting requirements that we have to adhere to, but it's the state that sets the educational standards that I need to follow.

[Josh]

I'm interested. Which functions do you think should be ended?

What the DOE actually does in rough order of priority and budget is:

• Administer student loans and Pell Grants for the nearly 50 million Americans who have student loans and get Pell Grants.
• Administering federal funding for K12 education which is mostly Title 1 grants to school districts with high percentages of poor students
• Oversee compliance with Congressionally mandated laws relating to education which mostly relate to Special Education, Disabilities, Homeless children, and Title 9 sports.
• Collects data on educational performance and other education related statistics around the country

I would see all of these functions as being better performed by the several states.

Loans are just saddling students with lots of student debt. Restrict student loans, and colleges will have to lower prices. And the state university and college systems are a good lower cost option. Pell Grants likewise could easily be administered by states.

The same for federal funding for K-12 education. States already fund education. The federal government doesn't need to be involved with this.

Laws about special education, title IX, and so on should be state level laws and dealt with by the states.

States can collect data and even form a consortium to collect all of the states' data. I'm sure a university or two would be glad to run programs to study and analyse all that data.

This would be a big savings in federal expenditures. I am more comfortable with state level taxation than federal level. There is no reason why federal taxes can't just go down, and states go up.

[RZehr]

Sure. I have no idea what they contribute to the well being of society. Do states not have this department?

[Ken]

Sure. I have no idea what they contribute to the well being of society. Do states not have this department?

States do have state departments of education but they do not have a lot of overlap in duties with the Federal DOE. The typical state department of education does these things that are completely different and not duplicated at the Federal level.

• Licensing of teachers, counselors, administrators. Which involves background checks, review of credentials, tracking of professional development training, investigations into allegations of misconduct and stripping of licensure, etc.
• Setting curriculum standards and graduation requirements for K-12 education (every course taught at every grade level)
• Standardized testing
• Financing of K12 and higher education which differs depending on the state
• School tracking and accountability (for traditional public, charter, and sometimes private schools)
• Administration of pension and benefits programs for school employees

And lots of other little things. None of which are done by the Federal DOE.

[ohio jones]

Just don't merge it with the Bureau of Underfunded Compliance - K12. The result could be a Federal Antagonist's Worst Nightmare.

[Ken]

I would see all of these functions as being better performed by the several states.

We are are a nation, not just 50 independent states. Sure, each state could go it alone. But since the DOE is largely a means of passing Federal dollars on to the states for funding of both K12 and higher education, it means that there is a good deal of redistribution of dollars from wealthier parts of the country to poorer parts of the country, and from wealthier urban/suburban areas to poorer inner-city and rural areas. If you dump all of it on the states it means that billionaire hedge funds in NYC and billionaire tech companies in Silicon Valley will no longer be helping fund K12 and college education for children in Appalachia or the Rio Grande Valley or the Mississippi Delta like they are now.

Because of how Federal funding for education is intentionally designed by Congress it tends to level out the enormous disparities that would otherwise exist across the US when it comes to education. Take it away and you create a vastly more unequal society when it comes to educational opportunity.

That may be of no importance to you but it is to me. Children do not chose who their families are and where they grow up. The zip code they are born in shouldn't determine their future opportunities in life.

[Josh]

it means that there is a good deal of redistribution of dollars from wealthier parts of the country to poorer parts of the country, and from wealthier urban/suburban areas to poorer inner-city and rural areas.

States have both urban and suburban areas and inner-city and rural areas. They also have wealthier and poorer areas. (Except DC, I guess, which is all urban, and is also the wealthiest "state" in the union.)

It seems states could do whatever redistribution they see fit.

If you dump all of it on the states it means that billionaire hedge funds in NYC and billionaire tech companies in Silicon Valley will no longer be helping fund K12 and college education for children in Appalachia or the Rio Grande Valley or the Mississippi Delta like they are now.

Is there a reason they need to be? I keep reading about how NYC schools and New York State schools are underfunded.

Because of how Federal funding for education is intentionally designed by Congress it tends to level out the enormous disparities that would otherwise exist across the US when it comes to education. Take it away and you create a vastly more unequal society when it comes to educational opportunity.

Spending does not necessarily equal better opportunity or better education.

That may be of no importance to you but it is to me. Children do not chose who their families are and where they grow up. The zip code they are born in shouldn't determine their future opportunities in life.

In America, anyone can change the zip code they live in, although I'm not sure that the post office that delivers your mail really actually determines your future opportunities in life.

[temporal1]

Thanks for starting this topic.
The idea of eliminating the U.S. DOE appears from time to time, i think worth consideration.
i’m happy with the ^^responses .. hope for more.

OP:

i agree with those who believe eliminating the U.S. DOE should be soberly considered.

The U.S. DOE represents a new topic, if anyone is interested.

I'm interested. Which functions do you think should be ended?

What the DOE actually does in rough order of priority and budget is:

• Administer student loans and Pell Grants for the nearly 50 million Americans who have student loans and get Pell Grants.
• Administering federal funding for K12 education which is mostly Title 1 grants to school districts with high percentages of poor students
• Oversee compliance with Congressionally mandated laws relating to education which mostly relate to Special Education, Disabilities, Homeless children, and Title 9 sports.
• Collects data on educational performance and other education related statistics around the country

History / An Overview of the U.S. Department of Education
https://www2.ed.gov/about/overview/focus/what.html

.. The Department's History
Although the Department is a relative newcomer among Cabinet-level agencies, its origins goes back to 1867, when President Andrew Johnson signed legislation creating the first Department of Education. Its main purpose was to collect information and statistics about the nation's schools. However, due to concern that the Department would exercise too much control over local schools, the new Department was demoted to an Office of Education in 1868.

Over the years, the office remained relatively small, operating under different titles and housed in various agencies, including the U.S. Department of the Interior and the former U.S. Department of Health Education and Welfare (now Health and Human Services).

Beginning in the 1950s, political and social changes resulted in expanded federal funding for education.
The successful launch of the Soviet Union's Sputnik in 1957 spurred nationwide concern that led to increased aid for science education programs. The 1960s saw even more expansion of federal education funding: President Lyndon Johnson's "War on Poverty" called for the creation of many programs to improve education for poor students at all levels—early childhood through postsecondary. This expansion continued in the 1970s with national efforts to help racial minorities, women, people with disabilities and non-English speaking students gain equal access to education. In October 1979, Congress passed the Department of Education Organization Act (Public Law 96-88). Created by combining offices from several federal agencies, the Department began operations in May 1980.

In the 1860s, a budget of $15,000 and four employees handled education fact-finding.
By 1965, the Office of Education had more than 2,100 employees and a budget of $1.5 billion.
As of mid-2010, the Department has nearly 4,300 employees and a budget of about $60 billion.

[temporal1]

A gaping hole in U.S. education is the vast shortage of conservatives teaching in education, K-College.
Possibly, correcting this one “oversight” would solve/mitigate loads of societal/cultural problems.

Interesting quote / Maine?

Frank Thiboutot Cumberland
We have all suspected that actors and actresses are 90% liberal.
That number is high but one study linked below has found that 97% of all high school teachers and 99% of health teachers are liberal with the overall percentage being 87% who vote for Democrats and 13% for Republicans.

I don’t believe in “cancel culture” one bit so I’m not asking teachers to disavow their political ideology. HOWEVER, they have no business indoctrinating our kids in the classroom.

It’s been said that, “Liberalism is a mental disorder”.
That may go too far, but I personally believe that liberal (actually, progressive) ideas may be well-intentioned but they are detrimental to our traditional American values and the principles of individual freedom found in our Constitution that have made our country great.

Therefore, I support LD 550 and urge the committee members to do so as well.
https://www.pacificresearch.org/why-are ... y-liberal/

2019 / Why Are Teachers Mostly Liberal?
https://www.pacificresearch.org/why-are ... y-liberal/

2023 / Pew Research Center / Partisan divides over K-12 education in 8 charts
https://www.pewresearch.org/short-reads ... -8-charts/

2023 / POLITICAL PARTY AFFILIATION AMONG ACADEMIC FACULTY
A recent article in Econ Journal Watch examined faculty voter registration at 40 leading US universities. Authors looked
at the ratio of Democrats to Republicans among tenure-track faculty in five academic disciplines: economics, history, journalism/communication, law, and psychology. The report found 3,623 of the 7,243 professors registered as Democrats and only 314 registered as Republicans. The ratio of registered Democrats to Republicans has increased in the past decade and is highest among young professors.
https://www.natcom.org/sites/default/fi ... _March.pdf

2018 / Homogenous: The Political Affiliations of Elite Liberal Arts College Faculty
https://www.nas.org/academic-questions/ ... ge_faculty

2022 / More than 80 Percent of Surveyed Harvard Faculty Identify as Liberal
https://www.thecrimson.com/article/2022 ... l-leaning/

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THE U.S. PUBLIC TREASURY
in my view, everyone who pays taxes (not just libs) has a vested interest in gov education, gov funding.
the U.S. Public Treasury should not be a big petty cash drawer for lib dreams/experiments.