by Dr. Watson Scott Swail, President & Senior Research Scientist

There has been a lot of hub-bub about the cuts to the US Department of Education, and, as of yesterday, we can call it the complete annihilation of the Department (or, as AFT’s Randi Weingarten says: “We’ll see you in court”). Understand that these issues are completely politically driven, and no one could envision these tactics during the campaign.

This dismantling or elimination of the Department has always been a stalwart issue for the GOP. Even back when Bill Bennett was the Secretary of Education in the 80s, there was pushback on the efficacy or need for a federal Department of Education. ED, as we call it within the beltway, is the GOP’s whipping boy. The Dems would do anything to save it, and the GOP knew it. For decades, they’ve gotten the Dems to vote on bills with the guarantee that they ED wouldn’t be touched.

Now the White House is blowing it up.

The problem is they are doing it with only political intent and are moving from threat to action, in a completely unconstitutional manner. As they are with other recent Administration moves, there is no sensibility, no strategy, and no essence of need beyond cutting enough funding to make for a $4.5 trillion tax cut extension. The Administration wants to cut enough federal spending so that they can extend the 2017 tax cuts and be able to say that they didn’t increase government spending. The reality that they have cost thousands of people jobs and cut important social and educational programs seems to matters not.

Here is the simple truth: even with all the cuts across the federal government, they can’t get there, fiscally, which is why they have now employed the third rail of politics: Medicare and Social Security. Those were non-starters, according to Trump. Now they are clearly on the table. Tax cuts are surely more important.

There are three GOP reasons for eliminating the US Department of Education. The first is to cut payroll and programs so they can fund the tax cuts. As I’ve stated, this doesn’t get them there and the cuts to Defense and other departments won’t get them there, either.

Second, the GOP have long argued that all education funding should go directly to the states in block programming, believing that the states will better monitor and use the money than a federal government. On March 18, Florida governor Ron DeSantis buttressed this point in a WSJ Opinion piece titled “Good Riddance to the US Department of Education.” In it, he stated: “Through block grants, the states will be better positioned to invest federal dollars in programs that drive student performance without having to meet burdensome reporting requirements.” Utah Governor Spencer Cox buttressed DeSantis: “Some critics worry that without national oversight, some states might fall behind. But that’s how federalism works. Our founders expected states to try different approaches and learn from one another. Innovation happens when states are free to lead.” Separately, Cox also argued that Washington, D.C. has overstepped its role and is “telling states how to educate their children.”

Both governors couldn’t be more insular or incorrect. ED doesn’t strictly tell states how to educate their children. States are the leaders on the education front, and spend $8 to every $1 of federal education spending. What ED has been doing is providing block grants for special education, COVID support, and other programs where the states actually have almost total control over how those funds are used. If the GOP really wants the US Department of Education gone, then there shouldn’t be funds going to the states, either. If you want to shrink government, shrink it. But handing out funds to the states without a federal department providing necessary oversight and support won’t shrink your government. It just moves dollars. And, by the way, there is a long sordid history of the inequity of spending and education progress at the state level. It is primarily the reason there is a federal Department of Education today: to help protect students who have the most needs, especially students with disabilities and others who have historically been limited within the education system.

There is a third rationale for the GOP’s focus on education. And this is the one that irks me more than the others: the constant rhetoric about the waste and fraud inherent in the US Department of Education. Even this week, we heard from experts and members of congress about this widespread abuse. The right-leaning[1] American Enterprise Institute (AEI), via their expert Fred Hess, had this to say said this:

“There’s plenty of inefficiency, waste, and bloat at the department. During the 23 years I’ve been in Washington, there’s never been even a token effort to address that.”

Fred Hess is an intelligent, thoughtful guy. And though he accurately fits the mold of an AEI expert, I strongly urge readers to read his piece because I agree with 80 percent of what he wrote earlier this week. But this throwaway line above is the perfect example of GOP thinking. I worked in DC for 12 years and I’ve worked on projects that involved the Department to some degree for over three decades. I have some idea of what happens at 400 Maryland Avenue and 1990 K Street and haven’t encountered the fraud or abuse that apparently is so prevalent. I’ve never seen an official public report of “inefficiency, waste, and bloat” at the Department. Not from the Government Accounting Office (GAO). Not from the Congressional Research Services (CRS). All we are left with are GOP talking points whose purpose is to seed unrest and push the belief that our federal government is fraudulent while the state is pure.

In a short two months, President Trump has created a public mess simply to get what he wants: extension of a tax cut so he can go back to the void of GOP voters and say he kept their taxes down. He’ll throw in a few more small cuts so he can say he went beyond his campaign promise. Smart politics. But the chaos he has created in every government agency is distressing. Meanwhile, the all-powerful Constitution of the United States is lying in tatters, bowled over by an Administration that believes it is all omnipotent and omniscient at the same time.

Yesterday, I watched the President talk about the dismantling of the US Department of Education. While carefully reading his teleprompters, it was clear he didn’t know what he was talking about. He didn’t know anything in depth about the Pell Grant, Federal Student Loan programs, or the Office of Special Education. He isn’t an information person. And he doesn’t have a dedicated, knowledgeable staff to provide support. Case-in-point: a wrestling executive is leading the dismantling of ED.

But here we are.

Keep your safety belts on, kids. I assure you this isn’t over. Randi Weingarten is right: this will all end up in court and the judges, and perhaps the Supreme Court, will stall or stop some of these efforts. But the design by the Administration is to throw so much chaos in the system and disrupt the status quo such that it will be difficult to put Humpty back together again.

The road isn’t going to get any easier for the next while. At least not until Congress steps up and leads like Article I of the Constitution advises it should. Not sure how they sleep at night.

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[1] https://www.allsides.com/news-source/american-enterprise-institute.