Why President Trump Isn’t Wrong about Dismantling the US Department of Education
Let states control education
Feb 5, 2025
The United States ranked #1 in education before the creation of the Department of Education and is currently around 17th (depending on the source). Maybe it’s time we look at some history and facts about education before the creation of the US Dept of Education (DoE).
Before 1979, states controlled education. Americans not only taught their students in small, locally controlled schools; they competed with other states to bring in workers and leaders that would benefit their states. States freely changed the curriculum based on the needs of their cities, counties, and students. Some states included more classes in agriculture, while some focused more on engineering. Yet every classroom, in every state, did one thing very well… they taught foundational math, language arts, and critical thinking so children could become whatever they chose to be.
Where would our children and young adults be RIGHT NOW if they were taught like our (great) great-grandparents in the early 1900s? Everyone was taught language arts (with Latin and Greek), history, math, and science curriculum from roughly age 7 years old to 15 years old. After they “graduated,” they were given the FREEDOM to CHOOSE their path instead of forcing every child to figure out their future before they graduated. Most 16-year-olds would prepare for college, help in the family business, or start working, And those who loved to teach would turn around and begin teaching the very school they had just graduated from (yes, at 16 years old).
Did you know parents taught their children to read and count before sending kids to school around age 7 or 8? So why do we have compulsory education from around 5 years old till they graduate in 12th grade if they can barely read or write? Ding, Ding! The US Department of Education. They forced national regulations that removed one-room schoolhouses that focused on the needs of the community to a one-size-fits-all mega-school. They aimed to create a uniform curriculum that prepared worker-bees for the industrialized world who wouldn’t question authority. They still threaten to withhold federal money if new curriculum ideas, block scheduling, and mandatory attendance are not adhered to. They stifle creativity and imagination while removing the power at the local level to teach students based on the needs of the students and local areas.
A complete abuse of power and overstepping of parental rights.
I am a sold-out believer in Classical Education, the way it was before “Big Government” realized they could control the future by controlling the classrooms. If parents don’t know it yet, learning can be fun at the younger levels, exciting in middle school, and invigorating in the upper-level classes. It was the US Dept of Ed that began labeling kids, stacking them in classes with the same age groups instead of the same education level, and removing kids from their parents for most of their childhood. What happens if you don’t agree with their rules? You get arrested! A complete abuse of power and overstepping of parental rights.
So yes, I believe in a small, locally controlled education system, and I believe that each state will rise to the occasion to bring together parents, educators, homeschoolers, children, and college graduates to create the best elementary and secondary education for their state. The beauty of it for Arkansas is that the Governor will have the freedom to stop the abuse of “mandatory-passing” students into the next grade before learning fundamental facts. Arkansas can now start evaluating every student where they are academically so they can get caught up in a sequential, orderly manner. Why teach algebra to a child who hasn’t even mastered multiplication? Or have them discuss elements and styles of literature when they can’t even spell literature?
The US Department of Education has proven itself to be a complete failure, and it’s time to bring innovation and creativity back to the individual states and become competitive in this dynamic and ever-changing world we live in.
Missy is the author of “Crushed, but Not Broken”, a story detailing her daughter’s diagnosis and her family’s fight with CNS HLH. She has a passion to improve education and help children with disabilities receive the education and respect they deserve. Missy and her husband are AF veterans and have 4 children.
Excellent article, Missy. The Federal Government is supposed to be limited to a few things and everything else left up to each State. Bureaucries almost always dilute and destroy whatever they touch.
My mother and grandmother were my kindergarten. I was ready when I started first grade. It is and always has been the parents responsibility to train up a child in the way he should go. The government provided school was supposed to supplement the child’s education not dictate it. Responsibility starts with parents and ends with parents.
I wrote about this several years back. Lindon Johnson was the one who pushed this towards the Federal government control. It was done “for the betterment” of the people. when government oversteps it’s powers, it is never for the betterment!
we have way to much government in our lives. They were meant to protect us from our enemies from inside America and outside. But we now have enemies welcomed across our border. We need them rereading our original constitution and going back to it.