The whole people must take upon themselves the education of the whole people and be willing to bear the expenses of it. There should not be a district of one mile square, without a school in it, not founded by a charitable individual, but maintained at the public expense of the people themselves.
John Adams, U.S. president, letter to John Jebb,1785
Recently, Rep. Thomas Massie (R-KY) introduced a bill to terminate the U.S. Department of Education. When interviewed about the bill, Massie stated that “unelected bureaucrats in Washington, D.C. should not be in charge of our children’s intellectual and moral development.”
Massie went on to add that curriculum development should be left up to local communities and states, and that “parents have the right to choose the most appropriate educational opportunity for their children, including home school, public school, or private school.”
Eliminating the U.S. Department of Education isn’t a new idea for Republicans. Back in the 1980s President Ronald Reagan ran on a platform of limited federal government and sought to cut funding for the Department of Education. George W. Bush sought to cut funding for the department as well under his administration, and Trump stated in a Hannity interview that the Department of Education “is massive and it can be largely eliminated.”
In addition to calls for its demise, other legislators are calling for the privatization of schools. Former Secretary of Education Betsy DeVoss is a prime example: She used her post under the Trump administration as an opportunity to steer hundreds of millions of dollars in public money away from public schools into private charter schools, some run by corporations.
The Department of Education was created under President Jimmy Carter in 1979 in order to consolidate the Department of Health, Education, and Welfare’s education-related functions. Carter hoped that the creation of this cabinet-level department would save the taxpayers money, as well as make federal education programs more accountable to the public. At the time Republicans opposed this, stating that education policies should be dictated by states and communities, not the executive branch.
So what’s the impetus for eliminating the Department of Education? If we cut through the veiled arguments, smoke screens, and cries of “school choice,” the answers are clear.
- Education is a multibillion-dollar market, and you can bet the private sector wants to get involved. For example, in Florida, funds for private schools went from $326 million in 2020 to an estimated $1.3 billion for the 2022-2023 school year.
- Conservatives and many Republicans are all for the free market and limited government, and as a result, seek to shrink aspects of the public sector.
- Private schools don’t have to pay teachers as much as public schools. In 2020-2021, public school teachers made on average $105,900 compared to private school teachers who made $78,600.
- With the privatization of education and schools, teacher’s unions will be crippled and have little bargaining power. Private schools typically negotiate contracts with teachers rather than negotiating contracts with teachers’ unions. As a result, teachers in private schools may not have collective bargaining rights for fair pay, benefits, and fair working conditions.
- Conservatives talk about “school choice,” and the right of parents and communities to have a say in their children’s education, but behind that rhetoric is their goal to end public education for the poor and to discriminate against minorities and LGBTQ individuals (last June the Supreme Court’s right-wing majority ordered Maine taxpayers to fund religious schools, including those that discriminate against LGBTQ students and employ “born again” teachers).
Public schools are a necessity for a functioning Democracy. They provide universal access to free education from grades K-12, and they guarantee an equal opportunity for children to learn, no matter their race, background, gender, or economic circumstances. They seek to unify a diverse population, and most importantly, seek to prepare our youth to take an active role as U.S. citizens and voters.
Gutting the U.S. Department of Education and promoting the privatization of education is just another money grab and diverts decision-making power from the public into the hands of corporations. What Rep. Massie and others propose is an all-out attack on Democracy.