The value of education and the Department of Education

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Can you please tell me whether there is a good argument that retaining this department would reverse this overall decline? I do understand the department has/had other goals (eg related to disability etc) but I’m specifically interested in the overall rates of reading and math achievement.

The Department of Education is perhaps one of the only ways Americans know that their schools aren't doing well at the national level. Both NAEP and international assessments allow for apples to apples comparisons. With those going by the wayside, we lose meaningful student performance data.

I am also including a gift link to a NY times that describes the troubling process by which states are dumbing down their own standardized tests (which generally cannot be used for cross-state comparisons). Without NAEP to hold states accountable, more and more of our students will be residents of Lake Woebegone "where all the children are above average."

https://www.nytimes.com/2025/04/02/opinion/florida-standardized-tests.html?unlocked_article_code=1.904.kzcU.Vpw_x_LKPunw&smid=url-share

That's partly why conservatives want to get rid of the DOE. They want schools in Alabamy to go back to teaching the War Between the States and Creationism without national scrutiny.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Education is the US is failing because parents and adults are failing the kids.

Don't forget the "experts" who do not let the teachers teach. And, especially, don't forget the teachers' unions who lobbied to keep schools closed during the pandemic.

Have a disruptive child throwing a tantrum? The teacher cannot send the child out of the room, but must, instead, remove the other children so that the child has space and cannot hurt others.

No punishment for children. Once upon a time, I taught school. Two minutes standing against the fence or by the teacher while the rest of the children were playing can do a lot. But, now you cannot keep a child from recess. (I believe all kids need recess, but a teacher also needs some tools.)
Now, we have "restorative justice." The child has to write down what he did wrong and what he will do better. Some kids do this every day.

Used to be that kids would need to write 100 times on the blackboard or on a piece of paper "I will not do XYZ". The teacher would also inform the parents. Neither is allowed anymore in many schools. There is no discipline without consequences for bad behavior.

[Anonymous]

-The DoEd also provides grants and funding for special education programs like IDEA.
-The DoEd provides funding and grants for Title I schools, those who serve kids in lower-income areas.
-The DoEd is who is responsible for compiling all the data on scholarships and grants that graduating HS students can apply for to attend college and technical training programs.
-The DoEd maintains FAFSA and administers grants, loans, and work-study funds to college students.
-Most importantly, the DoEd enforces educational laws like Title IX, student Civil Rights/Civil Rights Act, IDEA, FERPA, etc.

The teacher who wrote this needs to study a little harder.

The Dept of Education does not provide the grants--it administers the grants and funding provided by Congress.

Title I existed before the Dept of Education. (I know this from experience: I was teaching Title I kids in 1970 forward for several years. The Department of Education was not created until 1980.)
Title I will continue to exist without the Dept of Education.

The Department of Education has not done a good job of administering grants, loans, etc. to college students. You can read the newspaper and know that.

As far as enforcing laws, the Dept of Education has been setting poor policy: trans girls in sports, for example. The DOJ can enforce the laws.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote: Education is incredibly important to all Americans, Republican and Democrat. Dismantling the Department of Education is the wrong way to address it.

You just assume the first sentence requires there be a Department of Education.

[Anonymous]

The DOE has been stealing from hard working American taxpayers. Enough already.

[jsteele]

https://www.dcurbanmom.com/jforum/posts/list/90/1262654.page