Closing the Department of Education
rickdugan
If there ever was an agency both more useless and meddlesome than this one, I do not know of it. It is long past time to shut this social experiment posing as a governmental agency down.
Under its purported stewardship, American educational standards have steadily declined. This is what happens when you prioritize social goals over working to maximize academic excellence and rigor.
I remember my first direct taste of this when my kids were young and Michelle Obama used the agency to force schools to move to supposedly healthy lunches. What a shit show. The food was often so inedible that children were throwing it away and going hungry in the process, which defeats the whole purpose of providing school lunches, especially to poor kids. For many years we had to send our kids to school with lunch boxes, until common sense finally prevailed once Trump was elected and these initiatives were rolled back.
But the worst is probably the many ways in which the agency used Title IX as a hammer to compel schools to comply with their social policy experiments. Most recently by trying to force schools to allow boys in girls' locker rooms and bathrooms and on their playing fields, which was blessedly blocked by the courts. But even long before that, during previous Dem administrations, they were using it to deprive young college men of due process in school administrative proceedings in which girls claimed that they were raped (yet the police were somehow almost never involved).
But even better, while they showed great ability to promote crazy ass social policies, they couldn't get right one of the few things they actually should have been doing. Recently they were tasked with upgrading and rolling out a new electronic FAFSA form, which is the form that kids and parents must fill out to qualify for need-based college grants and loans. They fucked this exercise up so badly that many kids didn't know what they qualified for even as the new college school year was about to start. This is information that kids needed several months prior in order to decide which school to attend or if they could even afford to attend one at all.
The agency may have started with good intentions, but it has morphed into something that accomplishes little other than to serve as a social policy petri dish. It is long past time for this thing to go.
Under its purported stewardship, American educational standards have steadily declined. This is what happens when you prioritize social goals over working to maximize academic excellence and rigor.
I remember my first direct taste of this when my kids were young and Michelle Obama used the agency to force schools to move to supposedly healthy lunches. What a shit show. The food was often so inedible that children were throwing it away and going hungry in the process, which defeats the whole purpose of providing school lunches, especially to poor kids. For many years we had to send our kids to school with lunch boxes, until common sense finally prevailed once Trump was elected and these initiatives were rolled back.
But the worst is probably the many ways in which the agency used Title IX as a hammer to compel schools to comply with their social policy experiments. Most recently by trying to force schools to allow boys in girls' locker rooms and bathrooms and on their playing fields, which was blessedly blocked by the courts. But even long before that, during previous Dem administrations, they were using it to deprive young college men of due process in school administrative proceedings in which girls claimed that they were raped (yet the police were somehow almost never involved).
But even better, while they showed great ability to promote crazy ass social policies, they couldn't get right one of the few things they actually should have been doing. Recently they were tasked with upgrading and rolling out a new electronic FAFSA form, which is the form that kids and parents must fill out to qualify for need-based college grants and loans. They fucked this exercise up so badly that many kids didn't know what they qualified for even as the new college school year was about to start. This is information that kids needed several months prior in order to decide which school to attend or if they could even afford to attend one at all.
The agency may have started with good intentions, but it has morphed into something that accomplishes little other than to serve as a social policy petri dish. It is long past time for this thing to go.
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last commentUSAID
Dept of Energy
NEA
Ad Council
Corporation for Public Broadcasting
and the big one...
The Internal Revenue Service. Do away with all of the income taxes, sliding scales, loopholes, and cut outs. Lay down a flat tax on business and a VAT tax on private individuals. So fucking simple and FAIR.
Congress could simply block grant the money to state DoEs and let them figure out how best to allocate it. True Title IX violations can still be pursued by the DoJ. And any "reinterpreations" of Title IX can be handled by the outfit that is supposed to do the legislating, which of course is Congress.
I will be the first to acknowledge their are severe problems from many government organizations. Most of these problems stem from being influenced by corporate lobbyists who benefit from them.
That will be a thread for a different time when I have all my facts together.
The only thing I strongly disagree on is the IRS being removed. I have read countless theories about going to a flat tax, but there is one thing that even those articles admit. A flat tax rate would primarily increase the cost of consumer goods and housing. Effectively making everything more expensive for the lower classes of society who spend most of their income on housing, goods, and services.
For the any family bringing $360K or above annually, it's just more of a tax cut.
These deductions tend to be the government's attempt to turn people towards "socially desirable" behaviors. If the government started to "live and let live," we could let most of these deductions go. The rich pay more since they can't create legal structures to avoid taxes. Loads of "professionals" whose whole raison d'etre is to navigate all these rules and carve-outs go out of business. Within a few years, AI will be able to tell us who's cheating and by how much, so we don't need a whole agency of paper pushers to do that. We all save an assload of time, as taxes under the new system take 10 minutes.
Everyone wins, except those who benefit from making our lives as difficult as possible, or wannabe overlord who would be better off trying to create "harmony" in Xi's China.
The current screaming about USAID is hilarious: a 60+ year old EO JFK put into place, that has grown on auto-pilot with zero Congressional oversight from a baby alligator into a Nomenklatura behemoth on it's own living in the NYC sewar system with spending as a Global Agenda Slush Fund needs to be drawn and quartered, everyone released, and somehow the Radical Dems are calling this a "Constitutional Crisis." Sure, we can provide aid properly where needed, we are a compassionate country, we are NOT a The Soros Bank for the UN, IMF and World Bank. We are running a $2T deficit - Millions/Billions of Dollars from small programs add up, like the $1B we spend on PBS/NBR that needs to be go.
Now the Dems are screaming "Musk is taking over Treasury", which is hilarious. "This is how Hitler rose to power."
I am disappointed the first day Elon arrived to start DOGE on 20-Jan he didn't carry a kitchen sink with him. RINOs and Dems would have had to change their underwear.
The ones who will be affected the worst will be disabled kids who rely on Special Ed programs. But who needs those leeching Invalids anyway, right? Just more hungry mouths to feed. Compassion is for weak woke libruls!
But hey, the United States president was expelled from his private grammar school despite his father being a board member, for not only being stupid as a rock with an IQ of 73, but because in his dimwitted frustration, he ultimately attacked one of his teachers. He was then sent to a military boarding school as a punishment. That's his background, so of course he doesn't see the value in education. Most people aren't born with a silver spoon in their mouths. Getting rid of publicly funded education sets the stage for other countries to surpass the USA and just run laps around us in the future.
In the late 1700s, the Jesuits said, "Give us your children until they are 7 and we'll have them for life." This is a common theme that was used in Germany and Japan in the 1920s/1930s, North Korea, ect. The Liberals = The Blue Shirts, and it has been ongoing since the DOE was created by Jimmy Carter, and bolstered by the MSM, and we are now ranked like #32 when in the 1970s we were #1.
Companies that go from #1 to the bottom either collapse or reorganize (like GE & IBM).
Nina, that's just silly. The DoE does not set curriculum standards and never has. That is a function of the states. It's primary role is supposed to be data collection, allocating federal education funds as directed by Congress and to pursue *legitimate* violations of federal laws relating to education.
Enough is enough. Congress should simply block grant the money to state DoEs and let them figure out how best to allocate it. True civil rights violations can still be pursued by the DoJ. And any "reinterpretations" of civil rights statutes can be handled by the outfit that is supposed to do the legislating, which of course is Congress.
Oh, and one the red state vs. blue state comparison of education, times are changing. Florida is now ranked #1 in Education by U.S. News and World Report. My kids are all enrolled in public schools here and they are receiving a top notch education, free of the ridiculous nonsense that is increasingly infecting many of the schools in the blue states.
But the DoE has morphed into a beast stuffed full of progressive policy wonks who are endlessly trying to use their role as a funding traffic cop to strong arm schools into complying with their interpretations of federal civil rights laws. This is especially true whenever a Dem President is in power.
I don’t regret this for a moment, but what about everyone who can’t shell out $40K +/- per year for private schools? We can’t raise future generations of uneducated kids. Will scuttling the dept of education make public schools better?
If they want money, first step is to get rid of the layers of administrators that add spend without directly contributing to kids' education.
Maybe in your part of Florida. But in my area they are excellent.
My post was clearly about K-12, not postsecondary education. That is why I prefaced my post with, "For K-12." Blue states do generally have better K-12 public education. Even by that same source, Massachusetts is ranked #1 for K-12, followed by New Jersey, Connecticut, New Hampshire, and New York. Florida managed to snag #10, but even Illinois is ranked higher than that.
Florida needs some sort of system control, to bring the public schools into some form of parity.
That’s pretty typical of southern states, there is a huge difference between the wealthier enclaves and the poorer ones.
California and NY have their own DoE that will pick up slack. But poor people will continue to suffer in red states that don't have rigorous departments and services, more than they already do.
I've heard a lot of stories of people leaving California for cheaper states and being shocked how bad schools are there.
It's also interesting that Florida ranks second to last in average teacher pay. Only West Virginia is lower, so if adjusted for cost of living, FL is even worse. All bottom 10 states in teacher pay are red states. Shocking.
https://worldpopulationreview.…
@Ski: What's happening in MA is sad. I received a fantastic education there and to this day it is still considered #1. Up to now, public schools in MA, CT and NY have resisted the worst of the asinine progressive policies that have made CA and OR schools such a shit show. But that resistance seems to be eroding. Removal of the MCAS requirement is just the opening salvo. There are active efforts in schools systems in all three of these high achieving northeastern states to eliminate standardized tests along with AP classes and other advanced programs for high achievers, all in the name of "equity." Stay tuned.
Sure 25, but that's the same in every state in the country.
In the case of Florida, it certainly isn't for lack of resources. Every kid in Florida is being taught to the same standardized curriculums and has access to countless free tools and resources fully funded by the state. Heck any kid in the state can even take AP and honors classes online in countless subjects for free courtesy of the Florida Virtual School, which they can import into their high school transcripts. They can also earn free college credits courtesy of dual enrollment programs with the state community college system. Every single kid in the state has access to all of this.
All of this is possible because Florida has dedicated all of its net lottery system proceeds solely to educational funding. It was a condition designed to earn passage of a state lottery system by voters back in the 80s. By state Constitutional decree, FL politicians can't divert it to any other use. So degenerate gamblers are paying for what is now the top public university system in the country, A K-12 system which provides a plethora of in-person and online educational opportunities, cheap public college tuition rates (UF in-state tuition is about half of what UConn charges) and additional college scholarships for hundreds of thousands of Florida's best and brightest HS kids.
But what no school system can do is to change what these kids are dealing with at home, including lack of parental oversight, support and other resources. Again though, this is a universal issue affecting all school systems across the country.
Yeah, and this is a great example of why free school lunch is obviously necessary for a good learning environment that addresses all kids' needs.
What we do object to is wasteful programs, like those supposed "emergency" program that provided pretty much every child in the country a free school lunch whether they needed the help or not. We also don't need a bloated federal DoE to administer a subsidized lunch program.
I’m not going to disagree that there is a nurture as well as a nature component to this, but I’m going to point to some facts that have a lot to do with my points. First off in the wealthier more developed areas the schools are new and modern, in many of the older poorer areas the schools are in poor shape, with kids still in modular classrooms some of them from the 1960s. My point is resources are not allocated equally throughout the state, nor the counties, some areas have more political clout and they get more resources, so yes true that better educated families are a better place for our kids to get ahead but still some places need more funding despite the lottery proceeds being raised, plenty of schools are not up to standards, so all things being equal there is a need for an advocate, especially in challenged areas of our state and places that need more attention and resources to catch up to the rest of us.
I have to wonder how much financial mismanagement and county spending priorities have to do with why the school districts you're referring to are in such dire shape. For the most part we are not talking about expensive urban settings here. The counties already own these buildings and most of the teachers are making less than 65k per year. Are they simply choosing to spend on things other than their schools?
Before we start thinking about advocates demanding yet more money for the schools, perhaps we should be thinking about forensic accountants to audit these counties' books to find out where the money is going. I mean seriously now.
To argue that this will further disadvantage the failing blue district schools is an illegitimate argument. You could turn the schools into palaces, with the latest technology and the greatest teachers, and have barely any improvement in results and performance. That problem originates at home with subsidized unwed mothers, every child from a different absentee father, and a culture which places more import on drip, bling, and WAP rather than hard work and innovation. That problem is more interconnected and generational than can be solved under a single administration and would require sustained institutional and cultural change. The bottom line is that throwing good money after bad at those school districts would be exactly the type of wasteful spending that we voted have changed.
This is typical of all blue states: My freind now owns a dump truck. He gets paid $35.00 an hour in pay from his employer who rents his truck for $45.00 an hour as well. That's on a private pay job where someone gives a shit about not spending their own money. On a prevaling wage job (euohemism for cheating state job) He gets paid $51.00 an hour and $66.00 an hour for his truck. These jobs take 30% longer as well. same exact job: wait in line to get filled. Drive 4 miles. Wait in line to empty. He "worked" 12 hours yesterday, 9 hours of waiting, 18 miles of driving. 3 hours of holding a shovel so the low paid workers don't hate him.
Just to inform you there is a fuckton of financial mismanagement. and many of these smaller counties prioritize personal self enrichment, but you still can't compare a county like St. Johns which is getting rich from the developers with many of the smaller and less desirable places that aren't getting the attention of more sophisticated management, I can tell you from past experience in the construction industry, the grift in the shadows is tremendous.
The left loves to cry about "opportunities", which is a distraction. Everyone has equal opportunity with their peers. The left is actually upset about the lack of equal outcomes, which is impossible to achieve. Any attempt at such achievement results in socialism which then devolves into Animal Farm - All animals are created equal, but some animals are more equal than others.
I would ask the liberals who cry about the inequal opportunities- what ave you done about it? What skin have you put in the game? If you are retired and have free time- have you offered to tutor, mentor, or big brother? Have you organized chess leagues, diversion leagues, SUP leagues? No, you have not. Liberals love to tell other people how their taxes should be spent, but refuse to invest anything extra from their own pockets.
Does a blind person or a deaf person need additional resources to compete on a level playing field or are you just saying fuck them if they’re not able because of whatever it’s not your problem.
When being educated, loyal, hard working, thrifty etc. come back into fashion, then and only then will thing's change.
Government is never the solution for most problems, but we still need a mechanism to enforce standards, we know for a fact, that without checks and balances any system will eventually become corrupt, most people will if they think they’ll get away with it will just keep taking advantage of an unintentional loophole and enforcement of laws is necessary.
The proof is the welfare system it’s not that there aren’t people that legitimately need help, it’s that the grifters exploit the system to the detriment of the people who truly need and deserve assistance.
I oftentimes wonder why I appear to be the only person who notices the giant fork in this country indicating we're done.
The ideal is to make *opportunities* more equal so that all may benefit from the availability of these options. IMO FL has done that to the greatest *realistic* extent possible.
FL is: (1) Funding a good chunk of each kid's public OR PRIVATE education (generous per student donations and universal school vouchers); (2) supporting a completely free virtual school with real assigned teachers to fill in any academic gaps at the local schools, which is paid for 100% by the state completely separate from its brick and mortar school district funding (Florida Virtual School, which offers Honors and AP options included); (3) giving solid academic achievers what amounts to a free college education in the best public university system in the country (Bright Futures Program); (4) Has a program separate from school vouchers to allow low income kids to escape failing schools (Step Up Program); AND (5) offers dual enrollment free college credits to every HS kid in the state through its community college system.
I mean FFS man, what more can a state realistically be expected to do? What other state do you know that does all of this?
This of course is in addition to the plethora of other free resources now available to school children. At least here in Florida, every school child can use Microsoft Office for free with a student account provided by the school. They can also access a variety of other resources, like additional instruction lessons and practice sheets from Khan Academy.
Now sure, St. Johns County definitely has some nice new shiny buildings and offers a lot of non-academic opportunities that kids in poorer counties may not have, like a variety of athletic, music and other non-academic programs. But any kid in the state, run down school building or not, can take AP Calculus or Physics and/or earn several free college credits, regardless of whether the local school has the teachers and facilities or not.
I was emphatic that I would be childless because the world in 50 years would be so awful that I could not justify bringing children into it. I feel bad sometimes that the only thing I ever predicted correctly was that. 12/73 I decided to never have children. A decision I have never regretted, even for a nanosecond.
Life is funny sometimes you get exactly what you want and don’t know it, other times what you get is the exact opposite of what you think you want.
The point is that there is no one right answer. Part of it is going to be finding out what works for you, and part of it fitting yourself into the circumstances where you find yourself. If you get it right, you have a shot at enjoying life.
As far as Michelle, when she pushes for healthy food and less sugar, it is horrible, but the group who hated light bulbs that will last 25 years loves the idea when RFK ex heroin addict suggests it
As far as kids, I'm mid-40s and come to terms with being OK either having them or not. Part of me thinks I'd be a great dad; part of me melts with little kids and pets, but part of me sees them as part of the wife, 2.5 kids, house with a white picket fence in the 'burbs trap that keeps people working jobs they hate for a certain lifestyle because "it's the adult thing to do." I saw the matrix.
Instead, my finances are good and more importantly, I have time to do the things I love; I'm working my own hours (for now), taking on the projects that I want, can travel on a whim (long as I can arrange cat care), spend time with my friends and aging parents, doing volunteer work, and getting into arguably the best shape of my life. If I had the house and kids, I couldn't do any of this.
If I don't have kids (or am not with a wife and actively trying) by the time my age begins with a "5" it'll be time for the snip-snip. Kids are a young man's game. Maybe if I had kids in my late 20s and I were sending them off to college, I'd have said I couldn't live any other way--but I'm not given to regret.
As for the DOE, why do so many people think getting rid of it would make things worse, when the addition of it didn't make things better? This is exactly the sort of question Trump and Musk are asking around the government, and shutting down the rackets that have made the political class wealthy at the expense of the American taxpayer.
I'm not necessarily saying we _must_ shut down the DoE, but there needs to be ruthless accountability here as anywhere else. If you aren't making American kids more competitive in a global environment (fuck this self-esteem and DEI/LGBTQ shit), you get your walking papers.
Our education system, at the tippy top, is the envy of the world. That's why the best and brightest come here for their higher education. But the average American sucks; we've let electronic devices and pop culture raise our kids. Now they want to be rappers and influencers rather than doctors and engineers--basically, Vivek was right.
As far as Michelle Obama, this is what happens when Ivory Tower academics don't listen to input from the front lines before rolling out dramatic policy changes. It is the Law of Unintended Consequences.
As was reported amply in the press, and also observed firsthand by friends of my family, who were volunteering to help our local schools as lunch monitors, kids were throwing the food away. School cafeterias are simply not equipped to produce high quality and tasty super healthy food. Kids were going hungrier than ever because the food they were being served was barely edible. The salt, sugar, and fat guidelines that schools had to comply with were simply too stringent.
So what do you think those low income kids were doing to supplement? Likely eating cheap candy that they smuggled into school or binging when they got out. It didn't help that the Obama Administration also decided that it was a good idea to allow SNAP cards to be used at fast food restaurants. So no doubt when little Jamal got home from school ravenous because the lunch they served was inedible, he grabbed his Mom's SNAP card and went across the street to binge at his neighborhood McDonalds. Again, the Law of Unintended Consequences.
Rick dugan stop the crocodile tears. If you gave a fuck about kids or families you wouldnt create 2 broken homes over your addiction to hookers
That said we need a strong, honest, and independent, Inspector General type office in each state to audit the funds and be sure that these funds are properly spent, and accounted for.
But where you fell behind the rest of the class is not understanding that it was the DoE was the outfit trying to change in a way that ran completely counter to the law's original intent. Feel free to catch up anytime. Google is your friend.
So assuming that the DoE's patently illegal interpretation of Title IX wasn't challenged, what do you think was coming next for the states that have already passed laws keeping boys out of girls bathrooms and locker rooms?
Go as slowly as you need to. And try to focus on the issue rather than deflecting with endless MAGA accusations. 😉
And the high socioeconomic status districts are full of parents who bring in their lawyers and advocates to get their kid diagnosed with anything and everything that could get them IEP protection and not face consequences for acting up in school or to demand things like unlimited test retakes and reduced workload.
I know it was promised that SPED will become converted to a block grant, and in some ways there are good possibilities there. It’s pretty darn awful that for decades IDEA has been full of mandates, and yet never delivered on its promise to fund the 40% of special education services it’s supposed to. It makes things less hypocritical on a government that has for a long time imposed unrealistic expectations on districts without help, and in turn the districts impose unrealistic expectations on sped teachers without help.
Except the karents are probably going to use this to hoard even more advantages for themselves because without the clear guidance (even if severely flawed), they are in the best position to grab the grant cash for themselves. And conveniently, once those children graduate high school, their high needs babies will suddenly get dropped into a 504 plan (because universities recognize 504s but not IEPs).
Eff the kids who could have been better helped to learn things like functional living skills and gain independence in adulthood.
No school district, university, or state has ever lost Title IX funding. In the 40 years since Title IX was enacted, no educational institution or state has ever lost its federal funding for noncompliance with Title IX. administrative law judge and review by a federal court.
I guess when you Googled just enough to be a half informed jackass, it never occurred to you to keep going to find out why so many states cared if Title IX was as toothless as you believe. The answer is that it isn't. Keep Googling.
Maybe start with "Title IX Enforcement Actions" and "Private rights of action under Title IX."
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