Donald Trump has been tossing red meat all over the internet since winning re-election. Liberals are crying, Republicans are cheering, and this has to make them even happier. President Trump says what we’ve been saying for years – what many of you have said: shut down the Federal Department of Education and return all that money to the states.
“Leave it there” is better. Remove all line items from the federal budget. The DoE (Not to be confused with the Department of Energy) has wrecked public education. We suck. The Feds use their power and funding to warp curriculum and hold states and cities hostage to their whims.
The Libs are still crying over the election loss, and the red meat is just making matters worse. How could we possibly educate our children without all those distant emissions creating office space, commuting, and the massive line items for office supplies, office equipment, heat, cooling, payroll, benefits, and so on?
Easy. Every state has those, too. And I can assure you that after years of observing and remarking on the state and local versions, they are more than capable of wasting obscene amounts of your money to churn out kids who can’t read, write, or do math.
There is, of course, a downside to dissolving the Federal Department of Education. States won’t be able to benefit from the Feds robbing other states not to “teach” children. They will have to rob the locals, who might decide their school budget could use a bit of paring down when the bill goes up, and the proficiency continues to suck.
The dynamics of that are necessary and not just ‘cuz education. States like mine rely heavily on cash laundered through DC. The Dems and Sununu-Republicans can’t wait for more. But, real independence comes from solving problems locally so that citizens in the state have the power over who spends their tax dollars and how.
Assuming it happens, any denuding of the Federal DoE—or any other unnecessary Executive branch agencies—comes with renewed responsibility, cost, and accountability. Any authority handed back to the States must be measured for its continued value and either abandoned or funded.
That is the price of local control, but it is also a boon. Voters can actually decide if it has value and if it doesn’t, to them – they can choose to do without it, while neighboring towns or states can elect to keep it funded.
I’m not convinced Trump can trash-can the Department of Education, and whittling anything back in Washington DC is a chore, but when Trump says he wants to do something, he tries, and that’s a huge improvement over the status quo. Add Elon and Vivek tasked with making things more efficient, and systemic change is at least a possibility. If we can get JD Vance elected in 2028, there might be enough time to bring real change to DC.
