Do you think there is a progressive argument to be made for abolishing the Dept. of Education?

[bluestateguy]

We typically associate this issue position with conservatives, but in the last 10 years many (though not all) conservatives have abandoned this Reagan era commitment and instead used the Department to advance right wing education mandates upon states and local districts. In 2000 George W. Bush, the Republican nominee for president, had this platform lank quietly removed from the Republican National Platform.

The biggest example of course is No Child Left Behind, but there have also been mandates requiring schools to turn over lists high school juniors and seniors to military recruiters, lest the schools lose their federal funding, mandates that federal funds be tied to abstinence only sex education, and of course the Race to the Top program (this was folded into the stimulus in 2009) with its pretty implicit demands from Washington that standardized tests be used for teacher personnel decisions. Over the last 20 years the amount of red tape, rules and mandates coming down from Washington upon local school districts and state administrators. The feds can always use the threat of de-funding to make school districts and states fall into line. It is especially aggravating when you have a conservative administration that then uses the DOE and the small amount of federal funding it provides to push an activist right wing agenda from Washington DC upon local schools. I could easily see a hypothetical future Perry Administration or a Bachmann Administration using the threat of de-funding to mandate that schools teach creationism, require recitation of the Pledge of Allegiance, and the teaching of revisionist American history.

Conservatives already use the Pentagon as a sort of revolving door between the think tanks and defense industry whenever a Republican Administration is in power. I would not want to see the DOE become a perch for right wing think tankers to hang their hat when their president is inaugurated. They could cause much trouble from that perch, much like the pseudo-intellectual neo-cons did from the Pentagon for eight years.

[On the Road]

1. Any Power Can be Used for Good or Ill

No Child Left Behind is IMO a use of the DOE for ill. Has the DOE improved education in areas which would outweigh the negative examples you cited?

There is something to be said for local decisionmaking, however much the locals do not seem worth of trust. Whenever an edict comes down from on high, it's rarely in touch with the facts or specfics of the situation.

Perhaps the DOE could be used to fund some of the cost of mandated but unfunded special education.

[Ozymanithrax]

2. No...Republicans, with the help of Teddy Kennedy, abandoned children's education...

That doesn't mean we should abolish the department of education. It means that the elected leaders of the Democratic party should have the balls to stand up to the assholes ont he right.

[Ozymanithrax]

3. No...Republicans, with the help of Teddy Kennedy, abandoned children's education...

That doesn't mean we should abolish the department of education. It means that the elected leaders of the Democratic party should have the balls to stand up to the assholes ont he right.

[kestrel91316]

4. Why do you persist in taking the Repig view of education?? You have got

such a bee up your butt about public education.

You want to know what this country would be like without public schools? GO LOOK AT SOMALIA.

Then get back to us with the RW meme (which ain't gonna play here on DU, and is a violation of rules).

[proud2BlibKansan]

6. +1

[Smarmie Doofus]

5. Its policies over the last 10 years has pushed my state (NY) to the right.

Yes, the RW.... esp the corporate, as opposed to the cultural RW.....has figured out that DOE can be used as a tool to impose its will on union-friendly and teacher-friendly states.

So there's an argument for abolition there; but one has to consider the possible negative consequences of abolishing DOE for people in places like, say, Texas.

[proud2BlibKansan]

7. No it shouldn't be abolished, it should be redirected

It needs to be an agency that focuses on research instead of directing schools.

[Harmony Blue]

8. Agreed

Many believed FEMA needed to be eliminated after Katrina, but as it has been shown when progressives run the government...government works because they believe in it for the greater good of all society. Public schools need support from Democrats, and once that happens expect to see a massive turn around.

[NYC_SKP]

9. That's a good answer. If they have too much authority, things can go wrong.

As they seem to be now.

People who like what they're now doing might like to give them more power but, in the end, more local control means more individual, you and me, control.

Some public schools have elected to NOT take Title I money and thus skirt bullshit like NCLB/RTTT.

It's a loss of just under 10% of funding, but worth it.

Definitely worth it.

:donut: