How would it make you feel to have a great part of your paycheck taken to support something that is not controlled by you and is not efficient? It would be horrible. That is what the American people are doing for the U.S. Department of Education. The U.S. Department of Education (DoE) is a blatant overreach of government power and a result of teacher union pressure on federal leaders [1]. Per President Trump’s executive order, the Department of Education should be abolished because it is unconstitutional, inefficient, and drains millions of taxpayer dollars. By abolishing the Department of Education, local communities will have more of a say in their education, it would save citizens millions in tax dollars and ultimately grant the states power the Constitution rightfully deem as theirs.
The 10th Amendment of the United States states, “The powers not delegated to the United States by the Constitution, nor prohibited by it to the States, are reserved to the States respectively, or to the people”[3]. Nowhere in the Constitution is education mentioned, and it explicitly states that anything not mentioned should be given back to the states. President Carter’s decision in 1979 was explicitly unconstitutional. Not only that, President Carter was pressured to sign the bill by a teachers' union that helped him win the election. Whereas he had originally planned to pass legislation to support parents seeking private education, especially those in New York, the union won out over voters’ wishes; thus showing that the Department of Education is not only unconstitutional, but is also built on a politically partisan foundation [4].Returning full sovereignty over education to the states will allow citizens to have more say in their education because it will not be far distant bureaucrats making decisions but rather, state legislatures and local districts [5]. When citizens are closer to those who serve on educational committees or who make decisions, it is easier for communities to have more sway.
There is also evidence that the Department of Education has been ineffective in improving the quality of education in the U.S. Many would say that the Department of Education ensures that everyone receives a high-quality education with literacy and academic performance are prioritized. However, according to the CATO Institute, data shows that while federal education funding grows at an extraordinarily high rate, literacy and STEM skills in the United States have barely changed from before the DoE to after [6]. With the inefficiency of the government's involvement in education comes a very hefty price of $268 billion [8]. Salaries for its 4,200 workers alone are $2.8 billion [9]. Americans do not deserve to pay, not only for their state education departments, but also for an additional institution that costs them billions of dollars a year with very little benefit to their lives.
Additionally, in recent years, the federal government has pushed training on teachers that supported left-leaning views of “critical race theory”, an ideology that promotes a view on academia that is focused on racism in the United States as a foundation for the nation's history [10]. Many parents view it as a divisive ideology that tells children of color they cannot succeed in America [11,12] Other parents appreciate the new view on history and view it as necessary [13]. Regardless of opinion, in 2024, 6 million dollars in funding towards pell grants/teacher training programs for Critical Race Theory was cut [14]. Whether or not the families are supportive of this partisan program, it is disconcerting that 6 million dollars are being put towards the training of teachers in this social ideology that has already caused so much polarization. When students are barely improving in their abilities in literacy and STEM and even suffering in their reading skills, American taxpayers should not be paying millions for programs like these to be put in place [6,15]. This is especially vital when the taxpayers have no say in what the DoE trains because the employees are not elected officials.
Abolishing the Department of Education will do away with a lot of funding seen to be a great benefit to society, such as government pell grants, funding for basic common core curriculum, or funding for programs to help those with special needs [16] However, these programs that provide relief do not necessarily need to be taken away. Dismantling the DoE would mean that the decisions for those programs are given to the state and does not necessarily mean that people in need would be left alone. When it comes to monetary concerns from this shift, in the long run, Americans cannot lose money from taking away the DoE because the DoE and the federal government is paid for by their tax dollars. Cutting pell grants and federal programs related to education would just be putting money back in people’s pockets.
It is the duty of the federal government to protect the rights of states and citizens to choose how their institutions are run. With President Trump, I call for an end to the unconstitutional Department of Education and a push to allow states to decide for themselves what is best for their unique citizens. Tax dollars should not go towards a devise ideology or lack of quality in basic academia. The American people do not need the Department of Education any longer.
