GOP senator introduces bill to eliminate US Department of Education

[BumRushDaShow]

Source: USA Today

Published 6:35 p.m. ET Nov. 21, 2024 | Updated 6:52 p.m. ET Nov. 22, 2024


Sen. Mike Rounds, a South Dakota Republican, introduced a bill in the Senate Thursday to eliminate the U.S. Department of Education, promoting a policy President-elect Donald Trump backed to close the agency if he regained the White House, according to a news release from Rounds' office.

“We all know local control is best when it comes to education,” Rounds said in his statement. “Local school boards and state Departments of Education know best what their students need, not unelected bureaucrats in Washington, D.C.”

Rounds' Returning Education to Our States Act proposes redistributing the work of the Education Department to other federal departments. Rounds’ introduction of the bill comes after President-elect Donald Trump vowed on the campaign trail to abolish the federal agency. On the campaign trail, Trump repeatedly vowed to "close" the Education Department if he regained the White House.

“We want federal education dollars to follow the student, rather than propping up a bloated and radical bureaucracy in Washington, D.C.,” Trump said in October. “We want to close the federal Department of Education.” In Rounds' statement Thursday, he said he’s worked toward removing the federal agency for years.

Read more: https://www.usatoday.com/story/news/education/2024/11/21/mike-rounds-bill-to-cut-department-of-education/76487564007/

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Instead of the idiotic "media" continuing to dumb this country down by stringing people along with the ridiculous assertion that a President "can shut down Departments", they need to EDUCATE people about the fact that Congress creates the Departments and Congress would be the one to take them away.

I expect most on DU recall when "HEW" ( "Department of Health, Education, and Welfare" ) existed and was broken up under former President Jimmy Carter to create what is now the Department of Health and Human Services SEPARATE from a Department of Education. I remember when I first started working for a HHS agency and chuckled about all the leftover "HEW" forms and pamphlets that were still around and being used, as they continued to transition to be "HHS" (and over the years, would update the Department "logo", etc).

Here was the original law that created HHS and the Dept. of Education in 1979 -

S.210 - An act to establish a Department of Education, and for other purposes.

[Irish_Dem]

1. Dismantling of the US federal government per Putin's orders.

The balkanization of the US.

Breaking the US apart.

[Botany]

7. Musk, the Cryptoboys, and Putin's orders:

Burn it to the ground, sell off the pieces to the Oligarchs for pennies on the dollar,
and change the currency from dollars into crypto currency. Besides who needs education
and critical thinking skills? Just home school the kids and stay away from that “Woke History”
like slavery and the genocide of the Native Peoples of the Americas were really bad things.



Besides who needs nationwide educational standards and resources for teachers, schools, and
administrators?

FYI: https://www.democraticunderground.com/100219749719

[Irish_Dem]

22. Crime of the century. And most brilliant war ever waged against the US.

And the American people don't even know we are at war, who the enemies are,
and that the enemies have won the battle.

[OldBaldy1701E]

34. Maybe not the war, but they are fast approaching it. (n/t)

[Walleye]

2. Trump/Putin hate the United States and are doing their best to destroy us

[Lovie777]

3. The fear alone of losing income..

Will put tons of Americans into panics. Therefore the ending of this year and the following years where consumers will curtail spending thereby less profit for the greedy asshole. Now couple that with less healthcare coverages.

Extra fun cost is out the door.

Etc

[Martin Eden]

4. But... but... isn't that Project 2025???

I thought that was disavowed.

[mopinko]

5. obeying in advance. or

they’re just trying to gum up the senate so they cant approve as many judges.
either way….

[odins folly]

6. This fever dream of the rights

Is a continuous process of dumbing down America and its citizens. By removing a federal standard of basic education, they can fill local school boards with religious zealots who will take federal tax dollars and bulldoze their shit into kids brains.

The reason they hate education is because some people begin to understand the process of learning instead of repeating what they were told. This will not do if the oligarchs want a subservient society that has no will of its own.

Fuck these people who are driving this….

[LiberalArkie]

8. Is this because it was created during the Carter Administration?

I thought that the Republicans really hated the EPA because it makes all those climate rules and pollution regulations. But hey, that was created during the Nixon Administration.

[jmbar2]

9. It's all about the money

They want to privatize education for profit, and control what kids are taught. Consistent with the belief of Dominionists that it is their destiny to gain control over all government assets for jeezus.

[Lonestarblue]

10. Closing the Department of Education will save no money other than a few salaries.

What Republicans want is to dismantle the requirements against discrimination and receive the same federal dollars as block grants. The block grants are really important because they can use those to continue their re-segregation of public schools through charter schools.including religious schools.

A look at what has happened to the welfare program that switched from direct cash assistance to the poor from the federal government to block grants. Republicans have set up bureaucracies to ensure that the poor now receive very little cash assistance. In 1996, the federal government sent 60 to 70% of every dollar directly to the poor for food assistance. Today, the average is 20 to 25 cents per dollar. Republican states especially have siphoned off most of the assistance for other uses, like paying Brett Favre millions of dollars for speeches he never made.

The same will happen for education dollars meant to help poor schools, support girls’ sports, and prevent discrimination against certain categories of students. We are looking at more than just the destruction of federal government programs. Their loss will give state Republicans more power and money to create their own government solely for white people and the wealthy.

[chia]

28. +1,000,000

[mdbl]

32. and everyone's real estate taxes will go up since there will be no more funding

[bucolic_frolic]

11. local control creates small minded insular citizens who barely understand civilization

[CaptainTruth]

12. "local control is best"? Not according to Ron DeSantis.

He's repeatedly taken local control away from school systems & forced them to obey what the State dictates.

[LisaL]

13. More un-educated people vote for GOP.

So it makes perfect sense.

[dlk]

14. In a country where half the population reads below a 6th grade level

It would appear less local control might be an improvement. Too often, local school boards are sidetracked with religious and political issues, and actual education takes a backseat.

[Greybnk48]

15. Do they even have schools in South Dakota? He's got nothing to lose. n/t

just in case.

[in2herbs]

16. How many sponsors are on the bill? nt

[Javaman]

17. the long term plan is return to serfdom

you think I'm kidding?

[Linda ladeewolf]

21. No,

Their plan has always been oligarchy, maybe not our plan, but theirs. What is it they say, cream rises to the top. After watching these people for years, you can see most of them are the lowest of the low. No morals, no ethics, no empathy, no compassion, but they love them some money, status and lives of luxury. The wealthy are the lazy ones. They never actually work, they just receive.

[Journeyman]

31. Ken Kesey once told me, "Cream rises to the top . . .

and some shit floats."

[boonecreek]

18. Odd timing

Introducing a bill in the waning days of this Congress. Very doubtful that it will pass both houses and be signed into law by Biden. Unless that happens it will be as if it never existed and will have to be introduced again after the new Congress convenes. Why not just wait until then?

[Quanto Magnus]

40. they are trying to put killing of the DOE

on Biden's lap...

I also agree that it's to gum up the works on judge confirmation.

[barbtries]

19. I expect a brain drain.

but of course most of the people being denied an education will not have the means and their brilliance will simply never be fulfilled. truly heartbreaking.

[Wicked Blue]

20. Coming next: Department of Stupidity

Officially, at least.

[orangecrush]

24. This

[dchill]

23. Jesus, take the wheel.

[FarPoint]

25. I will just relax until it is actually initiated.

I'm just too tone deaf now to these GOP threats..... I know we will be in for drama and not sure Democracy will survive. I choose not to absorb these threats just yet....

[IronLionZion]

26. They want to make Americans uninformed and easy to manipulate

a permanent servant class of uneducated people doing whatever their wealthy masters want. All the while blaming their problems on some mysterious educated elite.

[Basso8vb]

27. Special needs kids will be among the most affected by this.

It's absolutely disgusting.

[gab13by13]

29. Thank you, I was just about to post the same thing.

[evemac]

30. I have been a SpEd for over 20 years

The idea of not giving supports and services for our young people who need it the most and benefit tremendously long-term from early intervention is beyond sad. It is flat out cruel.

[Botany]

33. Having young people happy, safe, intellectually curious, and not hungry regardless of whatever.....

…. skill set they bring to the table should be the goal of any nation. A young person with some
kind of developmental disability but is happy at times of the day is a good thing. I used to
bring my black lab to visit a young man with autism and he would put his arm around the dog and just
talk away as they were sitting together. A teacher @ the school told me that the autistic teen
would almost never talk to anybody else. Why be cruel? Nice is better.

[Kid Berwyn]

35. A real zero.

[GreenWave]

36. They want loco control, not local.

I am tired of these possibly out of district troublemakers threatening teachers, librarians and books when the angry mob IS the what's wrong. 60% or so cannot read past the sixth grade.

[TBF]

37. So, does this mean all student loans will be gone as well?

"2025–26 FAFSA® Form Now Available!" - this just released in the past couple days. Will it go "poof"? Will there be loans for folks who need them next year?

Old loans that folks are paying back - do those go "poof" as well?

I don't think they've thought this through ...

[republianmushroom]

38. The way to total control.

The republican family way, keep them ignorant, religious, barefoot and pregnant (babies having babies). Except for the republican elite (private school paid for by tax payers money).

[Marthe48]

39. Too bad for students

I attended a suburban Cleveland school district that was almost all white. There were 2 Japanese students, sisters from the same family. Anyway, I remember that before there was an attempt to standardize education so Johnny in California and Mary in Alabama and Derek in Nebraska all learned the same information, kids who moved into our school system from somewhere else often struggled to catch up, or change their idioms. And even if they were a little better educated, they weren't spared learning the pecking order. In the 50s and 60s, a lot of poor whites moved North to get jobs at Good Year, steel mills and so on. In hindsight, it was probably like another planet. I remember my 6th grade teacher doing a short lesson on pronunciation. She mentioned it was creek, not crick. I had never heard anyone say crick before, and I was fascinated. I think the lesson was probably kindness from the principal, one that the other teachers shared with their classes. The kids in my class were long time students and I doubt any of them ever said crick, either.
Americans still do a lot of moving around. The lifetime average is currently 11 times. Can you you imagine the disruption when rwnj dismantle public education and reduces it to the whims of local fiefdoms? I bet the reasoning behind dismantling a national standard of education is to disenfranchise any minorities, any religions, and any person on the gender spectrum that is not exactly the stereotype of white evangelical Americans.
As much as people move, their kids are going to be exposed to differences, the hard way. Kids going into the military are going to have a rough time adapting to the structure of military life and learning about the variety of humans who join up. It is a 2 way street, for sure. I remember getting to know a farm family who lived in S.E. Ohio. I loved them dearly and stayed with them once for a week. As time went on, I realized that their education was different than mine. It didn't make them stupid, but they were definitely locked into being farmers and living the life of farmers. One of their cousins moved north and the local family was in awe of the change in status.
I'm sure we all remember the sitcoms of the 60s-Beverly Hillbilly, Green Acres, Petticoat Junction, and how the characters were stereotyped, either as snobby urban dwellers or naive country folk. Modern education changed that dynamic, and I think were working on nuances--getting kids to meet and acknowledge other colors, other religions, other sexuality, really a whole world of variety, way more complex than city slicker and country bumpkin. The rwnj will take us back to a land of stereotypes and no one will benefit. Another giant leap backward.

[BadgerKid]

41. Translation: stealing "federal education dollars" for "local control"

Funny how RWers don't consider state-only funding of education.