The Department of Education question: A necessary expense?

The second Donald Trump administration is pushing measures to reduce the size of the government and cut unnecessary public positions. One of the most significant steps is the proposal to dismantle the Department of Education.

During his campaign, Trump claimed that the Department of Education was infiltrated by "radicals, fanatics and Marxists."

With many more detractors, the department has been widely criticized over the years, judged for failing to deliver positive results regarding children's learning, as well as for centralizing control of education, taking power away from local communities, states and, most importantly, parents. Those against the department claim that the federal government has used its influence to impose its vision of how and what children should learn in the classroom.

Department of Education budget

The Department of Education takes a portion of the nation's budget. The agency has about $79 billion in funding and 4,500 employees. Its functions include overseeing special education, administering funds for schools with high percentages of low-income students and managing student debt.

The department manages student loans for about 40 million borrowers, valued at $1.5 trillion. It also oversees the Pell Grant, which provides aid to students below a certain income threshold, and administers the Free Application for Federal Student Aid (FAFSA), which colleges use to allocate financial aid.

Data indicates poor performance

The Department of Education is relatively new. It was created in 1976, when then-presidential candidate Jimmy Carter promised the National Education Association (NEA) that he would push for the creation of a federal agency exclusively for education, as one did not exist independently. In return, the teachers' union, the nation's largest, granted him its first presidential endorsement in more than a century.

Department of Education advocates insist that the federal government plays a crucial role in ensuring "educational equity." However, the results of the department's work tell a different story.

The data from the National Assessment of Educational Progress reveals an alarming reality: not only have most students not recovered from the educational crisis brought on by the pandemic; the furthest behind have fallen even further behind. There is evidence to support this theory. The first is that one in every four eighth-grade students does not have even partial mastery of the math necessary for his or her level. Also, about one-third of eighth-grade students are below a basic reading level.

More autonomy, better results

The results are neither recent nor something new. For decades, the Department of Education has spent billions of dollars without achieving significant improvements in academic performance. This fact is criticized, since the federal government contributes 8-14% of total funding to schools, but exerts a disproportionate influence over them.

Many advocate that eliminating the department would not only save money, but would open the door to more effective and personalized approaches to teaching. The importance of parental presence in their children's education is critical. Surveys reveal that:

- 94% of parents with homeschooled children are satisfied.

- 90% of those who choose private religious schools report satisfaction.

- Even within the public system, alternative models such as charter and out-of-district public schools show satisfaction levels above 80%.

Bureaucracy-free education

Those calling for eliminating the Department of Education point out that it would go a long way toward reducing the federal government's influence in the lives of citizens. They claim that after decades of federal intervention the results keep getting worse, so it's time to admit that the solution is not more bureaucracy, but more freedom. Critics will argue, however, that this is a retreat from the country's commitment to education.