How many people has the Department of Education taught, why do we need it, what would happen if we abolished it? (education system, money)

[Katarina Witt]

Originally Posted by LauraC

You quoted my post which says EXACTLY that.

The point is, it is now its own Department, and as its own Department it has more authority and a bigger budget. For what?

IIRC, at the time, the Carter admin thought the responsibilites of the Ed dept. had gotten too large to be contained in the HEW, and that Ed needed to be a separate dept.

[Katarina Witt]

Originally Posted by malamute

Yes and many of these departments serve little tangible purpose, they could be completely eliminated and society would not suffer.

At some point we have to realize that we cannot sustain the extremely bloated bureaucracy we've allowed to build up. Time for some real cuts.

Well, yeah, let's cut education first! See Vivaldis' post.

[pollyrobin]

Originally Posted by Katiana

Contrary to what many in the RW believe, the Department of Education has been around a long time in some form.

United States Department of Education - Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

I'm getting tired of having to post this so often.

But never to the extent of being a cabinet level agency until
late '70's.

It could be done away with tomorrow, and it would save us
50-60 Billion a year

Once it was eliminated, no one would miss it.

[florida.bob]

Without it we would have fewer educated people, which is very desirable to Republoican bosses.

[malamute]

Originally Posted by florida.bob

Without it we would have fewer educated people, which is very desirable to Republoican bosses.

How so? No one at the Department of Education is teaching even one child.

There is no reason to think that by eliminating the entire department that any schools would close because the schools are run at a state and local level.

[Katarina Witt]

Originally Posted by pollyrobin

But never to the extent of being a cabinet level agency until
late '70's.

It could be done away with tomorrow, and it would save us
50-60 Billion a year

Once it was eliminated, no one would miss it.

Education was a cabinet level responsibility under the Department of Health, EDUCATION, and welfare from 1953 to 1979.

[jazzarama]

Originally Posted by ovcatto

Well the Department of Education has been around in one form or another since 1867 so brushing up on your history might help.

Federal Role in Education

I'd be ok with keeping the DoED, with the same role, # of employees, and proportional budget as the agency had in 1867. I'd even be generous and let it administer some financial aid programs.

[Gunluvver2]

The Department of Education is a propaganda machine. Control of our schools needs to be returned to LOCAL School boards. Too many strings are attached to Federal money that goes to schools. Who is going to do a better job of educating your kids: Some faceless pencil pusher in DC or a locally elected School Board that lives in the community? Should be a no brainer.

[bluesjuke]

Originally Posted by 60sfemi

How do you have a public education without the department of education to oversee it all?

Believe it or not there are things that State and /or local governments & people can do very well without the Feds holding our hands.

Amazing isn't it?

[Aunt Maude]

$70B / yr, and Bush II was responsible for a big chunk of run up. Whoof.

It has the appearance of a boondogle...a combination of a giant jobs program and huge slush fund for political payoffs in well-connected areas.

You can imagine the screeching if the giant rice bowl gets taken away, so I wouldn't count on this one disappearing anytime soon. You can argue that certain of their programs would merely be moved to another cabinet level office, it sounds to me that calculating the savings for killing it off would be non-trivial.