Why it’s Time to End the Department of Education

This op-ed originally appeared in Deseret News on August 12, 2024.

Does a bureaucrat in Washington, D.C., know the educational needs of your child?

The obvious answer is no, but many people think it is absurd and delusional to end the U.S. Department of Education. It isn’t.

I’m a former public school teacher and principal. I know how much the Department of Education influences what happens in a classroom. Spoiler alert: It’s a lot. Project 2025 has gained a lot of notoriety for calling for the department’s end. Opponents argue that this will reduce funding for education across the nation. Their argument boils down to this: “It’s about funding education, so it must be good.”

But think about how the department works. It takes taxpayers’ money, hires a bunch of people to attach rules to the money and sends back what is left. It is easy to see — this method is bloated and inefficient.

But more concerning is that many of their rules are highly controversial and politicized. In the past year, they have pushed for student loan forgiveness and updated their Title IX guidance to include culture war topics like whether transgender students should be allowed to participate in women’s sports. Although not controversial, their new FAFSA rollout for college student aid was a disaster, forcing some students to delay college.

Another major concern is the amount of data that’s collected on each student. Aside from the privacy concerns, which are many, this data is used to conduct pseudoscience. On July 9, the department bemoaned the fact that they have little data regarding your student’s home life. Because they had so little data, they have resorted to working with other agencies to learn more. Creepy, and weird …

Now, if the nation had seen a significant improvement in the education of our children, we could look past some of these things. But unfortunately, the data does not support that. Since the Department of Education was created, we have seen a simultaneous increase of funding and decrease in academic achievement; an increase in bullying and student anxiety, but a decrease in student safety; and an increase in political activism, but a decrease in civic engagement. Since the department was established, we have seen a decrease in both science and social studies being taught in our schools. Students spend more time preparing for and taking standardized tests. This is happening because of federal mandates.

We shouldn’t be asking the federal government to fix education. The needs of a student in Utah are different from the needs of a student in California. The needs of a student in Vernal are different from the needs of a student in Taylorsville. But even more nuanced — the needs of my children are different from the needs of my neighbor’s children.

We don’t need federal bureaucrats telling us what to do, especially when it comes to our children’s education. Instead, we need to push for local control. The best education decisions are made at the parent, student and teacher level. The closer we can get decisions for funding to that level, the better the outcomes will be for all students.