Penna Dexter

The Department of Education is not needed. More evidence surfaced recently in results from the National Assessment of Educational Progress, given to 4^th and 8^th graders every two years. Average NAEP scores in both grades are down 2 points since 2022. A third of eighth graders scored “below basic” in reading, a record low. And math scores continue to drop. The money we throw at the problem is not helping.

President Trump supports abolishing the Department of Education. Since only Congress can shut it down, advisors are debating the specifics of an executive order. The Wall Street Journal learned that the order is expected to “shut down all functions of the agency that aren’t written explicitly into statute” and “move certain functions to other departments.”

The order would also call on Congress to develop legislation to abolish the department. House Education Committee Chair Tim Walburg (R-Michigan), supports doing so, but expects Senate resistance. A recent Wall Street Journal poll shows 61 percent of registered voters want the department’s funding protected.

Betsy De Vos, Secretary of Education during President Trump’s first term wrote, “I can say conclusively that American students will be better off without.”

In an article for The Free Press, Secretary DeVos says she found, during her tenure, that “the Department of Education has almost nothing to do with educating anyone.”

Last year, Congress appropriated nearly $80 billion for education. Mrs. DeVos says, upon receipt of funds, the department‘s bureaucrats ”add strings and red tape, peel off a percentage to pay for themselves, and then send it down to state education agencies.” She recommends that Congress eliminate the middleman and send education funding straight to the states and schools as a block grant.

She says Congress should pass Universal School Choice — giving parents more authority.

Enforcing civil rights law should be shifted to the Department of Justice. And student loans should go to the banks.

Then, close the department’s doors.