The answer to the question is yes, of course. Let’s discuss why.
Good Riddance to the U.S. Education Department
Florida Governor Ron DeSantis has a good Op-Ed in the Wall Street Journal entitled Good Riddance to the U.S. Education Department
That’s a free link.
Florida’s success has been a direct result of the efforts I’ve described above—nearly all of which were done despite federal headwinds, and in opposition to the policies and priorities pushed by the federal Department of Education.
One telling example was the Biden administration’s attempt to strip Florida of federal school lunch money because I signed a law in 2021 to protect women’s sports. We stood our ground, but how ridiculous is it that the federal government would try to shoehorn states into jamming men into women’s athletic competitions?
For decades, the federal government has tied more strings than ever imaginable to our federal education dollars for both secondary and postsecondary education.
The idea of abolishing the U.S. Department of Education isn’t new. Ronald Reagan proposed it in 1981. Reagan said, “By eliminating the Department of Education less than two years after it was created, we can not only reduce the budget but ensure that local needs and preferences, rather than the wishes of Washington, determine the education of our children.”
More than 40 years after he uttered those words, the sentiment is truer than ever. The department had more than 4,100 employees and a $80 billion budget. What sort of return on investment did we see for our schools? Despite tens of billions of dollars pouring into the U.S. Department of Education annually, students never see the bulk of this spending in their classrooms—it gets tied up in a web of ideologically driven bureaucratic red tape.
Key Points
- We abolished Common Core, which had been pushed by the Obama administration, because it didn’t work for our students. Florida replaced it with high-quality, content-rich standards, Florida’s Benchmarks for Excellent Student Thinking, or BEST, which outline the state’s expectations at each grade level.
- We enacted universal school choice, which eliminated financial eligibility restrictions and the enrollment cap for school choice scholarship programs. In 2024 Florida had more than 524,000 students utilizing a school choice scholarship for private school or home schooling.
- Our students are tested at the beginning, middle and end of the year, providing teachers and parents with immediate, real-time data on student progress and allowing the opportunity for interventions before a student falls too far behind. Our students have shown significant year-over-year improvements using this testing model.
- We have also supported the expansion of charter schools, which now enroll more than 400,000 Florida students—a population that is majority low-income yet performs above its peers in traditional school districts.
- These record expansions are why the Heritage Foundation and the ALEC Index of State Education Freedom have both ranked Florida as the No. 1 state for education freedom for several years in a row.
- We also returned education to the core principles of teaching math, reading, history and science. That is why we were first to eliminate discriminatory and divisive theories that crept into our education systems such as Diversity, Equity and Inclusion and Critical Race Theory. We created a simple legal framework: Schools should educate, not indoctrinate.
- Florida has led the nation in refocusing our education systems on educating our students for lifelong success by eliminating DEI, expanding educational options, and making data-driven investments that support positive student outcomes.
Carefully Phrased Question
There is overwhelming evidence that the US Department of Education is rotten to the core and should be eliminated.
But notice how I carefully phrased the lead question. I started my question with “Should Congress …” not “Should Trump …”
The problem with the wording “Should Trump Eliminate the US Department of Education?” is Trump has no legal authority to do so.
If it was that easy, Reagan, Bush I, or Bush II would have done it.
And you don’t just eliminate the department without a plan because it would create chaos.
Properly executed, I am 100 percent in favor of efforts to abolish the Department of Education. But good luck doing it by Executive Order.
The unfortunate reality for those of us who would like to see the department cancelled is the courts will block the order, and justifiably so.
The Good News
The good news is Republicans hold the White House, Senate, and House.
Many of Trump’s executive orders can be bundled into a package and passed in Congress on a simple majority reconciliation vote, not subject to filibuster, if only Trump would go that route.
I don’t know if Trump would get everything he wants, but he would get many things he wants.
I propose two separate bills, one for the border and these kinds of actions, and a second one for tax policy.
The Bad News (Really Bad News)
The really bad news is Trump refuses to go the above route.
Time and time again, Trump has not chosen a clearly legal way to get things done but has instead relied on dubious (at best), executive orders.
Trump then complains about the “activist court” when the problem is an excessively activist executive branch that is losing case after case, as called in advance.
Trump Cancel Culture
I discussed why Trump is losing in Supreme Court Justice Roberts Issues Warning to the Trump Cancel Culture
Republicans now act just like AOC and the Progressive cancel culture activists.
As expected, I lost readers for that post. One person accused me of being “Extreme Liberal Left”.
What a hoot.
The facts of the matter are: I support eliminating the Department of Education, I support abolishing DEI, I support ending greenhouse gas nonsense, I support getting rid of much of USAID, and I support a DOGE overhaul, as long as all of them are done legally.
But hey, I am “Extreme Liberal Left” because that is how the Trump Cancel Culture (TCC) who sees everyone who disagrees with Trump on anything.
The reason why I want these things done legally is they will not happen otherwise, as the courts have ruled.
But go ahead, keep firing pot shots at the messenger for predicting the Trump court losses that have occurred.
According to OECD US education is not very good, so saving money there serms slightly shortsighted …
https://educationonline.ku.edu/community/how-usa-education-measures-up-worldwide
I think we have proven conclusively that throwing money at education does not result in smarter students.
Spending more is not the solution. Spending wisely is. The feds need to butt out.
Pushing education down to the states will mean the state-level interests jockeying for power. And different states with different leanings will mean vastly different approaches and outcomes. Here in Minnesota, the teachers union is very powerful and is a king maker for the Democrat party. I don’t think they would mind seeing the national Dept of Ed go away because that would make them even more powerful.
different states with different leanings will mean vastly different approaches and outcomes.
That is the point!
Also lest we forget, Viola Garcia of the NSBA worked with Education Secretary Cardona and the White House to draft a letter to DoJ signaling that irate parents at school board meetings were a security threat, whereby Merrick Garland’s DoJ basically put parents on the terror watch list. Dept of Ed is infested by Marxist authoritarian squalor and has nothing to do with educating children. Meanwhile, the thread here is invaded by TDS. Another sign of a flailing and failing educational system.
Let’s not forget something else concurrently happening. The cries or push for “School Choice” is Loud and Clear! Trump has said that He supports it, as has others in Washington.
This would be a wonderful thing, because it totally lines up perfectly, with the request for “Parents to Have More Say” Quite obviously they deserve it, pay for it, understand it, and live it every day with their children. Who could possibly understand the students better than the parents? School Choice has been held up IMO, because the schools didn’t want to “Give Up Control” and now we can see that’s very possibly the case. If so, this fixes that, and if not, it goes to rest.
A Win-Win for the Students, so let’s not forget whom this is all for…
Sounds like a rhetorical question. Since Americans can barely read, write and perform simple math anymore …
Mish – you are presenting an informed and mature viewpoint, which respects the rule of law. It is asking perhaps too much that people understand and accept what you offer. Remember what happened to Zarathustra when he came down from the mountain. Some of us very seriously appreciate you. ☮
Hi Mish,
I’ve been reading your blog off and on for years. I’m on the populist left side of the political spectrum so I don’t agree with you half the time. I keep coming back, however, because you are intellectually honest. I applaud the fact that you are principled, and I agree with you that we have a system of government enshrined in law and that our government officials should be following the law. I’m also happy that you convinced me to buy gold long ago when you were starting out on blogspot!!
I am, however, very glad I didn’t agree with you on your early take on bitcoin.
I though that Jimmy Carter formed the Department of Education by executive order. If so, it can be eliminated by executive order.
It was an act of congress
Linda McMahon says she will work with Congress. The EO is basically telling her that’s where her efforts should lie.
I’m pretty sure that many of these agencies are Unconstitutional from the get go. The three federal branches have only these delegated powers, “The powers delegated to the federal government, also known as enumerated or expressed powers, are specifically outlined in the U.S. Constitution and include the ability to levy taxes, regulate commerce, coin money, declare war, and maintain an army and navy.”
I don’t see anything there about education, health care, etc. So regardless of the “process” Mish is worried about, this dept. should have never been allowed in the first place. And we the people have the right to disband all unconstitutional laws and depts, and that was done at the voting booth.
So there’s that.
Mish, I disagree with much of what you believe, but I read your blog because you are thoughtful and intellectually honest. I disagree with your statement above, but I completely respect this sentiment, “Properly executed, I am 100 percent in favor of efforts to abolish the Department of Education.”
Just like USAID and dozens and dozens of other agencies, the DOEd is a slush fund of taxpayer oney directed to enrich Democrat operatives. The sooner this corrupt funnel is broken, the better.
But the small-time boards need to be shuttered as well, such as the fresh Christmas tree board and the fresh shellfish board. These are authorized by Congress as payback for campaign work or contributions. They guarantee beneficiaries fat salaries in return for a couple of cheap promotional posters.
Congress may authorize them but they still fall under Executive jurisdiction. If they cannot be liquidated by executive order, but they can be investigated for corruption and its operatives arrested for misuse of funds Its guaranteed all of them are double-dipping absentee workers.
Peace on earth: Ukraine bombed Engels airbase 500 miles from the border. Hamas
and the Hooties launched rockets to Tel Aviv.
Yeah, we could probably live without the Federal dept of education and Biden’s student loan forgiveness was ridiculous and needs to stop. That said, it doesn’t matter how much lipstick DeSantis tries to put on the pig, but Florida’s educational system, particularly K-12, is absolutely dreadful (with only a few counties doing a reasonable job across the state).
That is why we have “Florida Man”!
If red states don’t want federal money to subsidize their schools, that’s fine by me, but far and away the main thing doe does is loans and which are economically corrosive to our society. The explosion in tuition cost is outrageous. way beyond wage growth or inflation for decades. all for a piece of paper. the university accreditation system is a monopoly and student loans from doe is giant pump of money into universities pockets most of which goes into administrative salaries.
The question is phrased perfectly. Not only because it makes more sense, and applies the right “Body of Power” to the issue, but it also removes the chance of the TDS Clowns to jump on it as a “Trump Issue” or Republicans are going to do ?Issue. Enough of that BS!
Feel free to “Remove Trumps Name” whenever possible, regarding issues He does not specifically play a role in per se…
“There is overwhelming evidence that the US Department of Education is rotten to the core”:
– Look at Reading Proficiency – Look at Math Proficiency – Look at Science Proficiency – Look at (Insert Education Choice HERE).
MANY OF OUR H.S. graduates are unable to speak coherently, Spell a word with more than 5 letters in it, work a live cash register and provide change back, Etc. It’s actually quite pathetic, that we graduated them, rather than hold them back. So we have a massive amount of illiterate children running around without a clue about much of anything. We expect them to be proficient in anything but the idiocy that we see now? Do you really expect this to get better after decades of “Rot & Decay” in Our Education Departments.
These folks gave up on our (quite obviously NOT Theirs) Students decades ago. Look at test scores, and abilities to comprehend, understand or even be aware of what’s in front of them… it’s a literal disgrace!!!
– And you don’t just eliminate the department without a plan because it would create chaos. > Agreed!
– The good news is Republicans hold the White House, Senate, and House. > Let’s hope they can get it done, but the Right Way, so it’s not overturned in a few years, as it’s far too important to America!!!
– The really bad news is Trump refuses to go the above route. > Let Vance have a word or two or 100, and He can change Trumps mind on this one! Trump is old school, but Vance is New School, and there is a massive difference in outlooks. I think JD can change His Mind!
Talk to any teacher in the Florida public schools and before you finish your question, you will get an earful on how low the salaries are. In fact, the biggest constraint to the HQ exodus from the North East to S Florida is schooling. The public’s and charter schools are mostly not an option and the good privates do not have the capacity. And Florida does have some very good private schools. Just not enough of them the moment.
It’s a great part time job, 180 days of work. We need fewer teachers given AI and computer learning. The learning should be supervised by a paraprofessional (thug) not done at home.
Yes. I would like the states to take a portion of their Education money to provide FREE tutoring after school. This is not one on one tutoring. They can have a large classroom where students can show up for help. They can have a different subject each day. (Math, English, Reading, History, etc.) The tutors are NOT allowed to be teachers. They are to be students that excel in the field they are tutoring. They have been trying the same thing forever and continue to get the same results. It’s time to try something different. There are many children that need and want extra help. The cost of this FREE tutoring will pay off as these children can actually get an education instead of living off the welfare system for life. If the kids can’t read or do math how do you expect them to get a job to support themselves.
Sounds like a wonderful idea, but not practical in reality. I know a little about this subject matter, because my Daughter is and has been a Teacher for quite some time. She tutored for years before and after becoming a teacher.
She actually Teaches Teachers now, and hopefully is making the same difference she made in Her inner city classrooms! She also was one of only a few White Teachers in the entire school system. She excelled as she wanted to teach since she was 5, and was like a duck to water.
A tutor can be a very expensive route, and teachers don’t have the time to do so at all, after class. Part of there day to day is being a tutor. We put enough on them now anyway, as they get very little say, assistance, choice, or much say of anything. Not like teachers of yesterday at all. In fact it’s the other way around, of what they are asked to do, and don’t agree with, but again, not much representation at all, so they never, ever win a choice argument, it’s decided for them but the Politicians mostly. You know the Non-Teachers that have not a clue, but the Power & Control… Sad truly!
I specifically stated teachers are NOT allowed To be the tutors. It would be other students that excel in the subject they are tutoring. This is a very practical idea. What they’re doing now isn’t working so it’s time to try something new.
I guess I assumed that was built in, based upon my own experiences. My (her) area has no choice, as there just are not enough actual Teachers. They break into Pods.
All Schools at all levels should be doing this. Your Spot On!
Our Schools provide – School Breakfast Program (SBP) and National School Lunch Program (NSLP) – junk food for free. Our school system poison more young kids than McDonalds, Burger King, DD, Subway,,, combine. These programs addict poor small children on sugar, fructose, junk oil, salt and ultra processed food with empty calories. Addicted kids go to school for food, Poor mums save on SNAP bc school’s food is for free. Some teens go to school for lunch and leave. These kitchens are union jobs. Only a president can stop our children addiction to junk food from early age. The Dept of Edu. should teach kids the value of healthy food in the class rooms and change the menu. That’s is our best chance to eradicate obesity in the US.
They take after their fat parents. Don’t expect any miracles from the education monopoly. I have respect for people who take care of themselves, but they are few in fat land. Unfortunately, obesity is now mainstream and acceptable and god help you if you criticize anyone’s health standards.
The zoomers and gen alpha will tell their parents to prepare healthy food at home for them and for themselves.
haha i remember michele obama advocated for the very thing you suggest and they crucified her for “the government is trying to tell me that I can’t feed frosting to my children for lunch every day how dare they”
Yup, the food boogeyman that has been conjured up by people mostly on the right is hilarious to me.
It’s real simple. If you want to be healthy then stop eating copious amounts of food (garbage or otherwise) and move your body more. That’s it. It’s the 1st law of thermodynamics in action. Consume less energy than needed to function or burn more energy than you consume and you’ll lose weight. Wow….science!!!!
The idea that a large swath of the population is to dumb to understand that broccoli is healthier than Doritos is moronic. They know that Doroitos are junk, they simply chose the Doritos over the broccoli because they want too.
I thought conservatives were all about personal responsibility and pulling yourself up by your bootstraps?
The powerful food industry protects our democracy. Kids, high on sugar, cannot sit quietly in class and learn anything. The school therapist can send them to the doctor for observations and get pharma for life.
The Dept. of Education can’t, doesn’t, won’t, teach the kids Reading, Writing, and Arithmetic, and you expect them to teach the kids about food?
They won’t allow it to begin with, and if they did, it would be so bogged down by rules, regulations, what Can & Can’t be said, taught or explained. By the time it was done, it would be a 5 minute class of the kids singing about Food, and that would Pass (like there grades do) for “acceptable learning about Food”
Serious discussion on the education issue and scary statistics in this article:
Good thing my kids aren’t average and have had years of rising scores. We started them on Sungapore methods of teaching in 1st grade. Kids learn from their parents. If you blame smartphones and social media then blame the parents for being enablers.
““Think about how stupid the average person is, then realize that half of em’ are stupider than that.””
–George Carlin
This famous quote applies to parents also. A declining and relatively small number of parents actually read books or newspapers. Even fewer are math competent. How are THEY supposed to teach their children if they aren’t capable themselves?
Literally “Decades” in the Making!
Speaking of education. Maybe I’ll go back to school!
Harvard Is Going Tuition Free for Families Making Up to $200,000
Penn, MIT recently announced similar programs to boost access
Financial aid expansion comes as elite colleges face pressure
By Pierre Paulden
March 17, 2025 at 2:00 PM UTC
Harvard University is eliminating tuition for students from families with incomes of $200,000 or less, attempting to broaden access to the school at a time when elite universities are under attack from the White House and lawmakers.
The expansion of financial aid at Harvard, the oldest and richest US college, means the school will be free for families making $100,000 or less, with food and housing also covered. Students that meet the $200,000 threshold won’t pay tuition, according to a statement Monday.
Similar programs were announced recently at the University of Pennsylvania and the Massachusetts Institute of Technology, with the push to boost affordability coming as the sticker price to attend many elite schools stretches beyond $90,000 a year.
“Putting Harvard within financial reach for more individuals widens the array of backgrounds, experiences, and perspectives that all of our students encounter, fostering their intellectual and personal growth,” Harvard President Alan Garber said.
The new program will start in the 2025-26 academic year and will help about 86% of families in the US qualify for Harvard College’s financial aid, according to the statement. Currently, the school is tuition free for families making as much as $85,000 a year.
…
https://archive.ph/1c9CT#selection-1379.0-1917.220
Why the sudden burst of tuition altruism at the Ivie’s? Well first, it will help defend against a Trump’s threat to tax endowment wealth. Second, show me the Harvard numbers. How many students in the fall 2025 class would fall into the free tuition bucket? Then translate that into tuition dollars and compare that number to the prior years dollar return on its endowment portfolio. The tuition give back will equal a rounding error for the most part. They have more institutional wealth to give everyone free tuition. Now a real game changer would be increasing the class size by x% for those falling below the income threshold. But Harvard is not doing that.
It is not all of a sudden. My child graduated high school in 2012, and when we were doing our college search, it was an eye-opening experience. For most high-tuition private colleges and universities, most students do not end up paying anywhere near those advertised prices; plus, most of these colleges cover tuition costs entirely if the student’s parents’ household income was, at the time, under a specific number. These income thresholds ranged from $80,000 to $125,000. Some of these colleges covered all costs, tuition, and room and board for students from low-income households.
How does Mish feel about the New DOJ with Bondi in charge, backed up by Kash Patel who dispersed the financial nerve center of the FBI to BumF*ck, Alabama? Trump has received a lot of praise today for Putin despite his rejection of a cease-fire deal. Zelenskyy wasn’t so lucky a few weeks ago in that televised and horrifying spectacle as Trump and Vance eviscerated the Ukraine President because he “didn’t have the cards”. Trump is damaging America and deeply in Putin’s pocket. Putin would pay billions in untraceable gold bars to make sure America doesn’t send weapons to Ukraine, doesn’t cooperate with NATO and wrecks our trade relationship with allies of 100 years. I remember a time when Republicans favored free trade and thought Russia was the evil empire. Trump’s turned that upside down because he’s no Republican…Nor is he a conservative. Trump is a traitor and the laughing stock of the planet as he carries out Putin’s plan to get even for what America and Europe did to him after the Russian invasion of Ukraine.
It goes back before Ukraine. Putin was a KGB agent in Dresden when the Berlin wall fell. Former agents who worked with him and left Russia say he vowed to get back at America from that day forward. Clinton told Yeltsin he never trusted Putin from the moment he met him in 1999. The rest as they say is history.
You forgot to mention the Russian prostitute piss videos.
The smartest people I know were home schooled. The dumbest went to schools heavily influenced and funded by the DOE. I taught a class in one of them in college. Most of the students could not read in the 5th grade class. It was more than enough to turn me away from the education field.
We went to a Lutheran grammer school. My parents were blue collar and neither graduated high school. They sacrificed for us. I didn’t go to college. I supported myself and bought my 1st home at age 23 with no financial support from anyone. I worked 2 jobs to save for the downpayment. I was a saver instead of a spender and I retired at age 47. My parents didn’t have money but they had excellent values/morals and taught us kids work ethics and how to save money.
Congrats on your achievements!!
“If a student has access to a variety of reading materials in the home while receiving proper guidance by an adult, there is at least an 80% probability that said student will not be corrupted by the cabal of public schooling.”
Bertrand Russell
Is there room in Jimmy Carter’s grave?
The Department of Education, like so much of government, means well but lacks a clear mandate for what it is supposed to be doing.
Supervising local curricula would be a waste of time, because not only does each state have its own priorities, but some states are more advanced in student results than others, since human resources are distributed irregularly.
And in the bureaucratic world of the state authority, attempts to measure progress are an incentive for more makework, ensuring that all who might profit from government standards are dejected and left behind.
Knowledge is ignored by the many, anyway. Most people hate school, and are relieved when that onerous burden is lifted. Television and pornography are embraced by the many, instead. Peter Drucker’s opinions on the knowledge worker, his confident assertion that we’ll all be relearning whole swaths of skillsets every few years, and his faith in human ambition demonstrate how the modern intellectual overestimates desire and underestimates laziness. The Department of Education is a waste that should be eliminated.
=-=-=
You can read more of my writings by visiting: dark. sport. blog – on the net!
Yes, and one has to wonder why this isn’t being done or the first order of business for the fully GOP government in office now.
Perhaps we wonder because no one really wants to do it. Too many pigs are feeding at these troughs to eliminate it. It’s the 80/20 rule. 80% of the wealth is controlled by 20% of the states. Do you know which states?
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_U.S._states_and_territories_by_GDP
Once the Dept of Ed is gone, only the top 10 states will have the money to educate their residents, the rest will become uneducated dolts or if you prefer, “republican Taliban states.”
I think we’re totally missing the point here. How would eliminating the Department of Education do anything for Israel?
Education is a personal responsibility requiring time, effort, talent, resources, and guidance. The internet, parents and the local community provide the resources. Good websites, good teachers, and good parents provide guidance. The individual must provide the rest. Federal government has no part to play in education.
there are very few “communities” left in the us. citizens have been demoted to “consumers”, atomized and isolated. Most people would rather drink bleach then talk to let alone do a favor for their neighbors.
Hey Mish,
Can you ask CLEF if, instead of abolishing the dept via EO, Trump can instead declare everything Congress wants to spend the money on for Dept of Ed. to be unconstitutional and refuse to execute the (unconstitutional) law?
Absolutely yes & move to block grants with zero centralized federal education oversight. Then, states on their own accord should function as educational laboratories. In my state, I would want our State DoE to create 3 K-12 educational tracks for students:
Career Ready – Graduate as a 10th grader @ 16
Votech Ready – Graduate as 11th grader @ 17
College Ready – Graduate as 12th grader @ 18
Allow students to move between tracks starting in 8th grade.
Create a National Assessment for Educational Progress for each track.
Remove any sort of federal oversight of education which includes behavior management of students. There are countless students who have zero business attending HS after they turn 16. They’re not in school to learn, so provide a lower tier track to allow them to move into the workforce sooner.
Fund post-HS Votech and or college readiness for students who graduate at a lower track & demonstrate a desire to move up to a higher track up until they’re age 20.
NAEP is over, though. Flying blind.
Trump first has to dismantle the DoE which it’s very unlikely. So, it’s not toast yet. And even if the DoE is downsized significantly, I would question whether or not the NAEP actually goes away. I think if we followed my suggestion, most people would be satisfied, because then students are taking a different NAEP for the track they’re on.
The big issue today is that we’ve got all sorts of lower skilled students taking a test that’s geared towards students going to college, especially for the HS test and then it’s compared against our global competitors. We basically have millions of English as Second Language students as well as very low educated students taking the HS test, and then we compare that against, for example, China. Every student taking China’s HS level NAEP is a college ready student. Ours aren’t, so it’s comparing apples to oranges.
TRACKING IS WHAT NEEDS TO HAPPEN, among many other improvements.
Congress will never eliminate anything. All they do is spend more and more without making anyone “upset” by losing their place at the trough.
We should cancel SOME department just to show it can be done. Education is as good as any, although Defense would be even better.
Education should be a state controlled activity with a competent but much smaller fed oversight.
Local and parental control not state.
Agreed, but the State must be involved for some things. The financial resources obviously, buildings, for teaching, overall education curriculum (Local, parental acceptance of some sort) to be sure a standard is met, and others as well.
Just wanted to point that out.
Only parents are responsible for educating their kids. It’s unfair to shove educational expenses onto single working adults who are struggling to get by.
Education should be Federal controlled so that ALL students in ALL states get equal quality education.
Why has this policy you’ve recommended completely failed over the last two decades?
Because of many reasons, including excessive bureaucracy at the Fed and state levels and the Dept. of Ed doesn’t control many state aspects of education. Often, all they can do is make recommendations, under threat of terminating Fed money but no ne has ever actually done that.
Then you have the fact that different states have different economic situations and every state spends a differing amount of students per capita. NY spends the most at almost $26k/student. Utah spends the least at barely $8k!
Excellent perspective. Conservatives are as awful as Leftists if they go the autocratic route.
I agree with siliconguy. Best article you’ve posted in awhile.
The trouble with going this route is I don’t think Trump is wired this way.
His instincts about what is good for the country are usually spot on. Despite what the TDS crowd complains, Trump is more often than not in sync with the majority of the American people on most of the key issues.
But at is core, he is a disrupter, A flamethrower. It’s what has served him well throughout his entire life. Bloviate, blow things up, and manage to have it serve him well personally. He is a genius (or savant) at this process.
Trump doesn’t know how or care to know how to go through proper process for long term results. It is against his DNA. For good and for bad.
So expecting him to shepart legislation through Congress is a pipe dream. A fool’s errand. It is not going to happen until he breaks something, and by then, it will be too late to achieve real, meaningful, long term reform.
Sad for us, but at least Trump is controlling the narrative for the next 4 years.
Unless he kicks the bucket.
True. Trump’s actions allow the judiciary to restore abolished departments which then paints himself as a Constitutional fool.
Trump Cancel Culture (TCC)
Good plan gone astray? Not happy unless he is pissing off someone.
That’s the trouble with being libertarian. You get in trouble with the Left and the Right extremist. That “Hoot” made me laugh, it should have been your “Hoot of the day” lol.
right on some people just can not handle the truth by doing their own research
Best article in a while.
NAEP is pretty important. So is IDEA. You can debate the federal student loan program but I imagine people would flip if they canceled it.
I’d have to look at the money but I wouldnt be surprised if a lot of the Dept Of Education’s money goes to covering college loans. If you get rid of DOE, you just move the functions for monitoring and collecting these loans to the Treasury, and then all youve done is rearranged the deckchairs. This is the best we can come up with to address $36 trillion in debt and a $1 trillion deficit? I mean, we know no party or politician has the nerve to remind us is the average AMERICAN that wants all this government and doesnt want to pay for it. So, in the meantime, we play chutes and ladders. As Clara Peller screamed “Wheres Tha Beef??”
Ok, looks like “Office of Federal Student Aid” is $70 billion out of $100 billion budget. The DOE funds student loans that default. So why are we wasting time talking about closing DOE again?
Good catch!
Part of the solution is simple: Limit admissions to people with brains. The old adage applies: If everyone has a PhD, then a PhD sweeps the floors. I know someone personally in nearly exactly that situation. Time for educational disinflation, or downright deflation.
Thats not very “free market” of you 🙂
The deficit is set to be $2 trillion. We’ve over $1 trillion in the first 5 months.
Mike, yes it should be eliminated, crushed, scattered to the winds, preferably through Congress. However, I admit to being torn about this because of living in Oregon. Our state is a miserable 49th in education achievement and #1 in woke idiocy and trans surgeries for schoolkids. (Unofficially) Just when Oregon could use some “sane Daddy discipline” to save the kids, the prospect of elimination and turning things back to a moronic state offers little hope for the future.
It looks like Oregon is middle-of-the-pack when it comes to school performance https://worldpopulationreview.com/state-rankings/public-school-rankings-by-state
That mostly has to do with who the kids are. Vermont has plenty of wokery, but their kids do fine in school. Vermont also is “constitutional carry” and yet they usually have the lowest murder rate in the country. Because it’s 94% white or Asian. .
The new nation’s report card for 2025 has Oregon overall ranked #45 with only Alaska, New Mexico, and Puerto Rico ranked lower. https://www.nationsreportcard.gov/profiles/stateprofile/overview/OR?chort=1&sub=MAT&st=MN&year=2024R3&sfj=NP&cti=PgTab_ScoreComparisons&sj=OR
Well, you’re way better than Puerto Rico. So there’s that.
That’s when I wish Mish had a laugh button in addition to up or down.
The republicans will break down into loony bickering, and nothing will change. This will be the democrats fault somehow.