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Wednesday, April 12, 2017

Robert Holland: Depositing Ed Department in History’s Trash Bin Would Boost U.S. Education

Closing down the U.S. Education Department (USED) could be a snap compared to repealing and replacing Obamacare.

A bill, House Resolution 899, filed by Rep. Thomas Massie (R-KY) and seven co-sponsors on the day Betsy DeVos was confirmed as education secretary would start the beginning of USED’s deconstruction with just one wonderfully succinct sentence: “The Department of Education shall terminate on December 31, 2018.” That is the entirety of the bill. The contrast with hard-to-fathom legislation running hundreds or even thousands of pages is refreshing. And the sunset for an agency that has generated more red tape than positive results over its nearly four-decade run would be absolutely gorgeous.

USED is a monument to the failure of the strategy to use centralized education policymaking to boost learning. Furthermore, its ventures into shaping and tracking student feelings, attitudes, beliefs, and dispositions have become steadily more of a threat to individual liberty.

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1 comment:

Anonymous said...

Do it!
DOE has become a twisted, foolishly expensive nightmare without much to show for it, and over the years it's become much too friendly with teachers' unions, giving it unintended but undeniable political power.