house Bill H.R. 899
Does the Dept. of Education Need to be Eliminated After 2018?
Argument in favor
Unelected bureaucrats shouldn’t be in charge of the nation’s education system. States and local communities are best positioned to develop curricula that meet the needs of their students and hold schools accountable for their performance.
02/19/2017
Overseeing education and imposing national standards is not the purview of the federal government. That power is not given to the government and so by the tenth amendment is reserved for the states. I am not against education - I am against the federal government's Department of Education. And besides what is right and constitutional, let's talk about what is effective. Our per-capita education costs have climbed every year since the DoE was created in the 70s (keep that in mind - we educated our citizens well enough to do things like put a man on the moon even in the absence of a federal department). Our public education is the most expensive of any country and yet our performance is not in the top 20 according to numerous studies I keep seeing. It is NOT a funding issue - like I said, we spend the most of anyone. It is a stagnation issue because the federal standards discourage flexibility and innovation. But as I began, even more important than being effective or ineffective (although it is ineffective), it is unconstitutional. End the Department of Education.
02/22/2017
Let's wrap this Department up and pack it away. Our Founding Fathers were self educated or privately educated. The Education Department started out with good ideas, but slowly became associated in Social issues while wandering away from the 3 Rs. If kids can't read after the 8th grade or add a column of numbers, then explain how the "General Welfare" clause includes education?
···
04/04/2017
[FOLKS, THERE ARE SOME THINGS WE MUST NEVER TOLERATE! THIS IS ONE OF THEM!! THIS IS THE RESULT OF CULTURAL MARXISM!]
Indoctrination in American Schools: How bad is it?
• We were warned over 175 years ago that education could become a tool of indoctrination. Now it is undeniably being used as such.
By Devin Foley, August 10, 2017
(The above image is that of a jacket worn by a teacher in a West Virginia public school.)
The father of America's public education system, Horace Mann, famously quipped: "Men are cast-iron, but children are wax."
Mann knew that education was never a "value-neutral" proposition. It has always been and always will be a process that shapes not only a child's abilities, but more importantly, the child's worldview based upon the values of the educator. It was for this reason that many Americans pushed back, though unsuccessfully, against the kind of public, compulsory education Mann was championing in the early- and mid-1800s.
http://www.intellectualtakeout.org/blog/6-problematic-quotes-founder-americas-education-system
In 1840 a special legislative committee in Massachusetts had serious reservations about increasing government control over education. Regarding the wax-like nature of children, here's what the committee's final report had to say:
http://www.intellectualtakeout.org/blog/serious-concerns-about-americas-education-system-1840
"The right to mold the political, moral, and religious opinions of ... children is a right exclusively and jealously reserved by our laws to every parent; and for the government to attempt, directly or indirectly, as to these matters, to stand in the parent's place, is an undertaking of very questionable policy. Such an attempt cannot fail to excite a feeling of jealousy, with respect to our public schools, the results of which could not but be disastrous."
Without a doubt, the kinds of activities currently taking place in Edina, Minnesota, one of the state's most celebrated districts, mirror that 175-year-old warning. What teachers are doing and administrators are condoning is very much an attempt to mold the "political, moral, and religious opinions" of children -- starting in kindergarten.
Below are a few of the articles Intellectual Takeout published recently on the topic:
Communist Clubs Are Sprouting Up in U.S. High Schools Again
http://www.intellectualtakeout.org/article/communist-clubs-are-sprouting-us-high-schools-again
Wealthy Minnesota School District Treating Its Students Like Racists
http://www.intellectualtakeout.org/article/wealthy-minnesota-school-district-treating-its-students-racists
Elementary Students Being Indoctrinated in Minnesota's Top School District
http://www.intellectualtakeout.org/blog/elementary-students-being-indoctrinated-minnesotas-top-school-district
Teachers Are Abandoning Political Neutrality in Schools
http://www.intellectualtakeout.org/article/teachers-are-abandoning-political-neutrality-schools
Not All Parents Want Their Children to be Social Justice Warriors
http://www.intellectualtakeout.org/blog/not-all-parents-want-their-children-be-social-justice-warriors
Sadly, Edina isn't alone. Across the country many schools are seeing similar activities taking place in the classroom. While some parents and taxpayers may approve or even seek out such ideologically driven education, it's highly doubtful that all parents and taxpayers want it for their local schools.
Further, imagine being a student with views that run contrary to those of your teacher. How hostile of a learning environment could it become?
Last November, Quinn Northup was a senior at Edina High School and a known Trump supporter when her world went a little crazy the day after the election.
http://www.intellectualtakeout.org/article/teachers-are-abandoning-political-neutrality-schools
"Teachers and students were openly weeping, some uncontrollably. There was hugging. People were offering words of comfort and support to one another.
'It's going to be okay...'
'Don't worry...'
'We will make it through this together...'
Northup, now a freshman at Pepperdine University, said it was perhaps the most morbid scene she'd witnessed in her young life. 'It felt like someone had died or something,' she says."
It got worse as the day went on. Quinn found herself taunted and verbally assaulted both in school and on social media. It was too much for her.
"'I had to have my mom come pick me up after third hour that day,' she said. 'I couldn't stand to walk around a school filled with both teachers and students crying and looking to me through their tears with hurtful eyes.'"
I don't blame her for ditching school. Is that really the kind of politically charged environment you would want to be in as a student? How much learning can happen when you're harassed by students and even some teachers, made to feel deplorable for your views?
Quinn Northup is hardly alone in her experiences in such an intolerant, hostile school environment. Across the country many students are also finding themselves taunted, threatened, and ostracized if they do not line up with the social justice ideology. It is truly shameful.
We were warned over 175 years ago that education could become a tool of indoctrination. Now it is undeniably being used as such. The question is what will we do about it?
Devin is the co-founder and president of Intellectual Takeout. Prior to co-founding Intellectual Takeout, he served as the Director of Development at the Center of the American Experiment, a state-based think tank in Minnesota, where he was responsible for meeting a $1 million annual budget. He has been a commentator on a variety of TV and radio stations, and was named a 2011 Young Leader by the American Swiss Foundation. He is a graduate of Hillsdale College where he studied history and political science.
E-mail Devin: devin.foley@intellectualtakeout.org
http://www.intellectualtakeout.org/article/indoctrination-american-schools-how-bad-it
Argument opposed
The Dept. of Education is too important to eliminate. It helps develop education standards and provides student loans that allow people to advance their education when they otherwise wouldn’t have been able to afford it.
02/22/2017
From the very beginning of our Republic, a well-educated citizenry was thought to be essential to protect liberty and the general welfare of the people. Even before the Constitution was established, the Land Ordinance of 1785 and the Northwest Ordinance of 1787 included responsibilities of the nation for an education system. Education has long been considered a national concern by the federal government. Through federal action, education has been encouraged and financially supported from the first Northwest Ordinance in 1785 to the present. Article 1, Section 8 of the Constitution granted Congress the power to lay and collect taxes to provide for the general welfare of the United States. It is under this “general welfare” clause that the federal government has assumed the power to initiate educational activity in its own right and to participate jointly with states, agencies and individuals in educational activities.There is a national interest in maintaining a level of quality education. The Department of Education is the entity that serves this function. The United States is not a conglomeration of individual states that just happened to exist next to each other. We are a country made up of 50 states. While individual states should have the right to determine how to implement education in their own districts, there must be an overall plan that every state adheres to. There has been a consistent effort for the past 30 years to shift the political agenda to the right, which includes a greater emphasis on states rights as opposed to federal rights. This is another example of attempting to exert states rights over the rights of the federal government. Given the divisions among individual states about what should be taught in schools and about how what is taught should be taught, eliminating the exercise of federal oversight of education is dangerous. For example, the ability for all Americans to be treated equally under the law rests in our having the same understanding of what that law is, why it is important and what our Constitution says and means about applying equal treatment. If every state has control over what is taught in its schools, children in some states may never learn the full context of what the Constitution means, or that there are opposing viewpoints about what it means because their state does not require such knowledge to be taught in school. This conflict can, if left to its own devices, further separate our 50 states by politicizing every aspect of our lives to such an extent that there can be no unity. A unified educational system is vital to the success and strength of this country. Such a system is best led and Implemented at the federal level, with a strong bent toward allowing states a broad range of choices in how to accomplish this within a framework of shared educational values determined by a central federal source. For more information, read this excellent article from the League of Women Voters: http://lwv.org/content/history-federal-government-public-education-where-have-we-been-and-how-did-we-get-here
···
02/22/2017
Why does the thought of an educated population scare politicians? Could they possibly be not working for the public good?
···
02/22/2017
Public education is the only chance we have to be competitive in the global economy.
Overseeing education and imposing national standards is not the purview of the federal government. That power is not given to the government and so by the tenth amendment is reserved for the states. I am not against education - I am against the federal government's Department of Education. And besides what is right and constitutional, let's talk about what is effective. Our per-capita education costs have climbed every year since the DoE was created in the 70s (keep that in mind - we educated our citizens well enough to do things like put a man on the moon even in the absence of a federal department). Our public education is the most expensive of any country and yet our performance is not in the top 20 according to numerous studies I keep seeing. It is NOT a funding issue - like I said, we spend the most of anyone. It is a stagnation issue because the federal standards discourage flexibility and innovation. But as I began, even more important than being effective or ineffective (although it is ineffective), it is unconstitutional. End the Department of Education.
From the very beginning of our Republic, a well-educated citizenry was thought to be essential to protect liberty and the general welfare of the people. Even before the Constitution was established, the Land Ordinance of 1785 and the Northwest Ordinance of 1787 included responsibilities of the nation for an education system. Education has long been considered a national concern by the federal government. Through federal action, education has been encouraged and financially supported from the first Northwest Ordinance in 1785 to the present. Article 1, Section 8 of the Constitution granted Congress the power to lay and collect taxes to provide for the general welfare of the United States. It is under this “general welfare” clause that the federal government has assumed the power to initiate educational activity in its own right and to participate jointly with states, agencies and individuals in educational activities.There is a national interest in maintaining a level of quality education. The Department of Education is the entity that serves this function. The United States is not a conglomeration of individual states that just happened to exist next to each other. We are a country made up of 50 states. While individual states should have the right to determine how to implement education in their own districts, there must be an overall plan that every state adheres to. There has been a consistent effort for the past 30 years to shift the political agenda to the right, which includes a greater emphasis on states rights as opposed to federal rights. This is another example of attempting to exert states rights over the rights of the federal government. Given the divisions among individual states about what should be taught in schools and about how what is taught should be taught, eliminating the exercise of federal oversight of education is dangerous. For example, the ability for all Americans to be treated equally under the law rests in our having the same understanding of what that law is, why it is important and what our Constitution says and means about applying equal treatment. If every state has control over what is taught in its schools, children in some states may never learn the full context of what the Constitution means, or that there are opposing viewpoints about what it means because their state does not require such knowledge to be taught in school. This conflict can, if left to its own devices, further separate our 50 states by politicizing every aspect of our lives to such an extent that there can be no unity. A unified educational system is vital to the success and strength of this country. Such a system is best led and Implemented at the federal level, with a strong bent toward allowing states a broad range of choices in how to accomplish this within a framework of shared educational values determined by a central federal source. For more information, read this excellent article from the League of Women Voters: http://lwv.org/content/history-federal-government-public-education-where-have-we-been-and-how-did-we-get-here
Why does the thought of an educated population scare politicians? Could they possibly be not working for the public good?
Public education is the only chance we have to be competitive in the global economy.
While federal support of education is not specifically included in the constitution, it is in our country's best interest to ensure free and equal education to all children. The US is not ranked among the best education systems in the world, and this would only make things worse.
Here are just a few of the things that will happen if the ED is eliminated:
- There wouldn’t be any oversight over states when they break civil rights laws (and there are definitely those that will).
- We wouldn’t have a federal department to administer Pell Grants to students.
- There wouldn’t be a department to check on rampant inequality between low-income school districts and wealthy districts.
- We would have inconsistent education data, as the quality of data would vary among the states.
- There would be more gender discrimination within schools.
Let's wrap this Department up and pack it away. Our Founding Fathers were self educated or privately educated. The Education Department started out with good ideas, but slowly became associated in Social issues while wandering away from the 3 Rs. If kids can't read after the 8th grade or add a column of numbers, then explain how the "General Welfare" clause includes education?
[FOLKS, THERE ARE SOME THINGS WE MUST NEVER TOLERATE! THIS IS ONE OF THEM!! THIS IS THE RESULT OF CULTURAL MARXISM!]
Indoctrination in American Schools: How bad is it?
• We were warned over 175 years ago that education could become a tool of indoctrination. Now it is undeniably being used as such.
By Devin Foley, August 10, 2017
(The above image is that of a jacket worn by a teacher in a West Virginia public school.)
The father of America's public education system, Horace Mann, famously quipped: "Men are cast-iron, but children are wax."
Mann knew that education was never a "value-neutral" proposition. It has always been and always will be a process that shapes not only a child's abilities, but more importantly, the child's worldview based upon the values of the educator. It was for this reason that many Americans pushed back, though unsuccessfully, against the kind of public, compulsory education Mann was championing in the early- and mid-1800s.
http://www.intellectualtakeout.org/blog/6-problematic-quotes-founder-americas-education-system
In 1840 a special legislative committee in Massachusetts had serious reservations about increasing government control over education. Regarding the wax-like nature of children, here's what the committee's final report had to say:
http://www.intellectualtakeout.org/blog/serious-concerns-about-americas-education-system-1840
"The right to mold the political, moral, and religious opinions of ... children is a right exclusively and jealously reserved by our laws to every parent; and for the government to attempt, directly or indirectly, as to these matters, to stand in the parent's place, is an undertaking of very questionable policy. Such an attempt cannot fail to excite a feeling of jealousy, with respect to our public schools, the results of which could not but be disastrous."
Without a doubt, the kinds of activities currently taking place in Edina, Minnesota, one of the state's most celebrated districts, mirror that 175-year-old warning. What teachers are doing and administrators are condoning is very much an attempt to mold the "political, moral, and religious opinions" of children -- starting in kindergarten.
Below are a few of the articles Intellectual Takeout published recently on the topic:
Communist Clubs Are Sprouting Up in U.S. High Schools Again
http://www.intellectualtakeout.org/article/communist-clubs-are-sprouting-us-high-schools-again
Wealthy Minnesota School District Treating Its Students Like Racists
http://www.intellectualtakeout.org/article/wealthy-minnesota-school-district-treating-its-students-racists
Elementary Students Being Indoctrinated in Minnesota's Top School District
http://www.intellectualtakeout.org/blog/elementary-students-being-indoctrinated-minnesotas-top-school-district
Teachers Are Abandoning Political Neutrality in Schools
http://www.intellectualtakeout.org/article/teachers-are-abandoning-political-neutrality-schools
Not All Parents Want Their Children to be Social Justice Warriors
http://www.intellectualtakeout.org/blog/not-all-parents-want-their-children-be-social-justice-warriors
Sadly, Edina isn't alone. Across the country many schools are seeing similar activities taking place in the classroom. While some parents and taxpayers may approve or even seek out such ideologically driven education, it's highly doubtful that all parents and taxpayers want it for their local schools.
Further, imagine being a student with views that run contrary to those of your teacher. How hostile of a learning environment could it become?
Last November, Quinn Northup was a senior at Edina High School and a known Trump supporter when her world went a little crazy the day after the election.
http://www.intellectualtakeout.org/article/teachers-are-abandoning-political-neutrality-schools
"Teachers and students were openly weeping, some uncontrollably. There was hugging. People were offering words of comfort and support to one another.
'It's going to be okay...'
'Don't worry...'
'We will make it through this together...'
Northup, now a freshman at Pepperdine University, said it was perhaps the most morbid scene she'd witnessed in her young life. 'It felt like someone had died or something,' she says."
It got worse as the day went on. Quinn found herself taunted and verbally assaulted both in school and on social media. It was too much for her.
"'I had to have my mom come pick me up after third hour that day,' she said. 'I couldn't stand to walk around a school filled with both teachers and students crying and looking to me through their tears with hurtful eyes.'"
I don't blame her for ditching school. Is that really the kind of politically charged environment you would want to be in as a student? How much learning can happen when you're harassed by students and even some teachers, made to feel deplorable for your views?
Quinn Northup is hardly alone in her experiences in such an intolerant, hostile school environment. Across the country many students are also finding themselves taunted, threatened, and ostracized if they do not line up with the social justice ideology. It is truly shameful.
We were warned over 175 years ago that education could become a tool of indoctrination. Now it is undeniably being used as such. The question is what will we do about it?
Devin is the co-founder and president of Intellectual Takeout. Prior to co-founding Intellectual Takeout, he served as the Director of Development at the Center of the American Experiment, a state-based think tank in Minnesota, where he was responsible for meeting a $1 million annual budget. He has been a commentator on a variety of TV and radio stations, and was named a 2011 Young Leader by the American Swiss Foundation. He is a graduate of Hillsdale College where he studied history and political science.
E-mail Devin: devin.foley@intellectualtakeout.org
http://www.intellectualtakeout.org/article/indoctrination-american-schools-how-bad-it
As a parent of a child with special needs, there is a need for federal protection and support for the rights of all children to have access to quality public education.
States and local school districts can have success improving their standards and assessments without surrendering control to Washington. Increasing transparency of outcomes in a way that is meaningful to parents and taxpayers, providing flexibility for local school leaders, and advancing systemic reforms that include school choice options for families will go a long way in improving academic outcomes while at the same time preserving local control of education.
Let's be clear about what this bill WILL and WILL NOT do. What it WILL do: ensure that a patchwork of educational standards nationwide churns out generations of students with wildly different (and yes, likely substandard) skills, training and knowledge; churn out generations of students who are positioned globally to perform below the level of their global peers; churn out a generation of students with wildly different outcomes based on pre-existing socio-economic disadvantages depending on geographical area; permit bias and prejudice to creep back into our educational systems based on the local perception of proper "cultural norms;" permit reintroduction of educational concepts that literally damage our students understanding of the world (think creationism, abstinence instead of health based sexual education, and science denial such as climate change denialism); and (this is not a complete list, obviously) make it impossible for institutions of higher learning to objectively evaluate student applicants because there is no expectation of minimum standards for children graduating from high school. What this bill WILL NOT do: foster better educations (see above); save money (local taxes will sky rocket AND after the damage to our students is clear, massive expenditure to repair the damage will be necessary); help students compete nationally and internationally; and encourage a level playing field educationally for ALL students regardless of socio-economic status, race, gender orientation, etc. This bill is among many being proposed that are quite literally the result of magical thinking and, quite frankly, ignorance and self delusion. This bill MUST NOT see the light of day. The future of our country is quite literally at stake.
“Unelected bureaucrats in Washington, D.C. should not be in charge of our children’s intellectual and moral development. States and local communities are best positioned to shape curricula that meet the needs of their students. Schools should be accountable. Parents have the right to choose the most appropriate educational opportunity for their children, including home school, public school, or private school." I totally agree with this statement. Another chance for Republicans to reduce our out of control federal bureaucracy and reduce regulations and the federal budget.
I suggest the politicians learn what the Dept of Education does before deciding to dismantle it. If they believe it is only responsible for setting federal education standards, they are no better than Rick 'get rid of the department that manages our nuclear capabilities' Perry.
The Department of Education plays a crucial role in post-secondary education, as well as setting standards for public education at the K-12 and preschool level.
The department of education clearly defies the 10th amendment of the Constitution and puts far too much power in the hands of too few people. This type of issue should, as designed in the constitution, go locally outward, not from the top down.
When they start college, our school children are already behind the school children of other countries. Please do not pass this.
What has the Department of Education done except put our kids further behind the rest of the world by watering down educational standards under the influence of the socialist NEA? An organization more concerned about their power and political clout than academic excellence. Currently, the Department of Education is a disservice to our nation, and a disgrace to the students it was created to serve. Return educational guidelines back to the state and local authorities. We were far better off before the DOE than we have been with it. Eliminate it immediately and give academic freedom to every American citizen.
Eliminating education standards only does disservice to those who are disadvantaged, and reduces opportunity for everyone.
I urge all members of congress as a leaving high school student that cares about education to vote for this and get the government out of my education. Education should be handled by the people who know me and other students best, the teachers themselves and the school districts. Government bullies in either the state or federal level should never have the authority to mandate education standards and force us to prepare for 30 tests a year. Over 50% of the sophomore class in my school is failing something, government involvement doesn't work and it's unacceptable.
Federal out and states in, communities and most importantly the parents to have the decisions on what belongs in the classroom and what doesn't. The last administration had secretive criterium being taught without the states knowledge much less the parents. Our children do not belong to everybody like the progressive would like for us to believe. I resent tremendously the fact that the cult Islam is taught and Christianity is banned. That students that are patriotic wearing tee shirts that reflect their pride are punished. I resent the fact that American history is zilch or made up. Mainly I loath the teaching of young children sodomite ways. Over 3,000 arrest over a course of three months pedophilia, human trafficking, finding children in cages, all ages women and men to be sold. Yet the MSN report nothing and if one does try to expose this unspeakable perversity they get shut down by the big corporations. Dr Phil, Craig Sawyer, Doug Haggaman. Even the arresting officials involved in these raids don't get the coverage of their stories. Pedophilia is an epidemic and these perverts are everywhere. Included in the 3,000 number are 200 college professors. Give the sovereign states their public schools back. I'm against my grandchildren being assimilated by the Borg!