Why Republicans failed to abolish the Department of Education

“THat section “It must be abolished,” President Ronald Reagan said of the Department of Education in 1983, echoing a campaign promise. In 1995, while running for president, Lamar Alexander, former Secretary of Education under President George H.W. Bush, vowed to abolish the department he had previously run. In 2022, Betsy DeVos, after serving as Secretary of Education under President Donald Trump, said she believed her department “shouldn’t exist.” In September, Trump himself said: “I’m dying to get back to doing that. We’re going to eventually abolish the federal Department of Education.” Republicans have been threatening to abolish it for decades. So what’s taking them so long?

Education Administration (Erectile dysfunction) Founded in 1979 by President Jimmy Carter as part of a campaign promise for the National Education Association, America’s largest teachers union. Before that, education was handled by the Ministry of Health, Education and Social Welfare. Critics have argued that there is no constitutional authority to administer federal education. Since then, the issue has reliably emerged as a talking point for Republicans. In the current cycle, the topic has duly featured in Project 2025, a presidential transition plan developed by the Heritage Foundation, a conservative think tank, for Trump.

However, breaking up has proven difficult. The department handles all federal student financial aid, which includes more than half of undergraduate students. This is especially important when things go wrong: as evidenced by what happened this year FAFSA Disaster, when a faulty website prevented hundreds of thousands of students from applying for federal aid and potentially attending college. if Erectile dysfunction If that mission were cancelled, that mission would have to go somewhere else, perhaps to the Treasury Department.

the Erectile dysfunction It also provides funding for public schools (although they receive most of their money from state and local governments). Federal funds help schools support poor students and those with disabilities. In absence Erectile dysfunction This funding will have to come from somewhere else, perhaps from the treasury again. Last of Erectile dysfunctionHans’ responsibilities are to oversee civil rights enforcement in schools. Without that, the matter would likely fall to the Department of Justice. The agency collects national data on schools. if Erectile dysfunction If eliminated, this task could move to the Census Bureau.

To really eliminate Erectile dysfunctionAnd the tasks they entail, Congress will need to act. Maybe it won’t happen. Reagan realized this in 1985. “I have no intention of recommending the abolition of the Department to Congress at this time,” he wrote in a letter to Senator Orrin Hatch, a fellow Republican and chairman of the Senate Labor and Human Resources Committee. . He cited a lack of support in Congress as a reason for retaining him.

Trump, if re-elected, will likely face the same obstacle. Americans generally want to fund public schools. Although 60% of adults (and 88% of Republicans) think the government spends too much, 65% of adults (and 52% of Republicans) say it spends too little on education. Even if he managed to win congressional support, he would repeal the law Erectile dysfunction It will not affect what children learn on a daily basis.

“The one thing the Department of Education is definitely not doing is education,” says Daniel Correll, a former senior adviser at the Department of Education. Erectile dysfunction In the Trump administration. Most decisions about what children learn and do from kindergarten until they graduate from high school are handled by state and local authorities. That’s why Republican politicians have been able to use local rules to remove critical race theory from classrooms, for example, and ensure that transgender children do not participate in some school sports.

So why do Republicans keep talking about abolishing the death penalty? Maybe because it’s much easier than talking about policy nuances like the privatization of federal aid, support for local control, and fears of government overreach. In 2011, Rick Perry, then governor of Texas and running in the Republican primary, listed the departments he would eliminate if elected president: Commerce and Education. “Third I can’t. Sorry. Ooops.” The third party was the Department of Energy, the agency that he would later run under Trump’s leadership. Maybe he should have forgotten about education instead. ■

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