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The United States survived for two centuries without a federal Department of Education and could do so again. In the 45 years the department has existed, students haven’t made much progress. Nine-year-olds, for example, are reading no better today than they did when the department was created in 1979.
The truth is that having a cabinet-level agency devoted to education has not made our kids smarter, our schools better or our academic achievement stronger — and it has added to runaway growth in education spending.
Demoting it, perhaps integrating some functions into other departments, taking the sign off the door — any such move would need Congress’s assent but wouldn’t harm today’s kids or the nation’s future. We say this as former education secretaries — one for President Ronald Reagan and the other for President George H.W. Bush.
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What would do serious damage — this is a live concern as DOGE swings its broad axe — is eliminating some vital programs and responsibilities currently housed in the Education Department.
One of the most essential things the Education Department does is “The Nation’s Report Card,” which helps us know how students are performing. (iStock)
That agency does three things that matter — all of which need overhauling but all of which are far too important to discard. Let’s not throw these babies out with the bathwater.
First is “The Nation’s Report Card.” This regular accounting is put together by a unit called the National Center for Education Statistics, which gathers essential data, administers key tests of student performance, and informs the whole country as to how its kids are doing in the 3Rs as well as American history and civics and science. Without that data — gathered regularly, analyzed carefully and reported accurately — we wouldn’t know much about the education responsibilities Congress first assigned the government in a law passed in 1867:
“…[C]ollecting such statistics and facts as shall show the condition and progress of education in the several States and Territories, and of diffusing such information respecting the organization and management of schools and school systems, and methods of teaching, as shall aid the people of the United States in the establishment and maintenance of efficient school systems, and otherwise promote the cause of education throughout the country.”
More than a century and a half later, we still need all that!
Second is redressing violations of students’ civil rights. We’re talking here about actual violations, not the Orwellian search for “disparate impacts” that’s too often been the focus of Education Department enforcers in recent years. But whether it’s a child with disabilities who isn’t getting the kind of schooling she needs, or a minority kid denied entry to a college he’s qualified for, or a Jewish (or Muslim) student being harassed on campus, it’s the Education Department’s job to try to solve the problem. (Conceivably the Justice Department could handle this, but its hands are pretty full these days!)
Third, the Education Department distributes federal dollars for various programs and services in schools and colleges. This garden definitely needs weeding. Even better — as we’ve each proposed in the past — the money in most K-12 programs should be “block-granted” to states.
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Senate legislation in 2014 recommended letting states turn 41% of federal elementary-secondary dollars into $2,100 scholarships that would follow 11 million children from low-income families to accredited schools of their choice. Similar legislation proposed such federal scholarships for children with disabilities — which many states are already doing.
As school choice spreads with state and (often) local dollars following kids to the schools they actually attend, big federal programs still use creaky formulas that distribute funds to schools in ways that may never reach the youngsters meant to benefit from them.
That agency does three things that matter — all of which need overhauling but all of which are far too important to discard. Let’s not throw these babies out with the bathwater.
It’s different in higher ed, where we give Pell Grants to needy college students that accompany them to the colleges they actually attend. If such vouchers — which is what Pell Grants are — helped to create the best colleges, why not use them to create the best schools?
That would eliminate layers of bureaucracy, inject needed competition into the education system, and shove Uncle Sam out of the way of state decision-makers and, especially, of parents making the best school choices for their children.
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The Department of Education contains plenty of grimy bathwater that should be drained. But three babies are splashing around in it. Clean them up, for sure, but don’t throw them out.
Lamar Alexander and Bill Bennett served as U.S. Secretary of Education for George H.W. Bush and Ronald Reagan, respectively.
Lamar Alexander was elected both governor and U.S. senator from the State of Tennessee. He also served as president of the University of Tennessee and U.S. Education secretary for President George H.W. Bush. He co-founded a Nashville law firm and two successful businesses.
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