It’s been a policy goal of conservatives since the Reagan administration, but U.S. Sen. Jeanne Shaheen says lawmakers who want to eliminate the federal Department of Education “have no idea what they’re talking about.”
The Granite State’s senior senator made the comment while addressing the New England Council at the New Hampshire Institute of Politics last week.
President-elect Donald Trump campaigned on a pledge to “get rid of” the federal Department of Education and send control and resources back to the states. Conservatives say it’s a wasteful and redundant bureaucracy, noting that it didn’t even exist until the Carter administration.
The reason the U.S. didn’t have a national education department for nearly 200 years, says Neil McCluskey of the Cato Institute, is “the Constitution gives the federal government no authority to govern education.”
South Dakota Sen. Mike Rounds (R) has proposed the “Returning Education Back to Our States Act” that would “eliminate” the department “by practically rehoming these federal programs in the departments where they belong, which will be critical as we move into next year,” he said in a statement.
“For years, I’ve worked toward removing the federal Department of Education,” Rounds added. “I’m pleased that President-elect Trump shares this vision.”
Nonsense, Shaheen said.
Shaheen praised Linda McMahon, Trump’s head of the Small Business Administration during his first term who he’s tapped to serve as secretary of education. “I found her to be very responsive, a good manager.” But Shaheen denounced calls to eliminate the agency.
“I think those people who think we’re going to get rid of it have no idea what they’re talking about, to be frank,” Shaheen said. “Because it administers not just Title I, as you know, it also administers Pell Grants, all kinds of programs that benefit people.”
Shaheen was also angry over political attacks on the agency.
“I’m sure you share this (sentiment): I’m tired of education being a whipping boy for everybody, for all the other challenges that people see. Education is the most important place for us to invest in.”
According to the available data, the U.S. does invest in public schools, but with little to show for it.
According to an analysis by the Hoover Institution, the U.S. spends 40 percent more per student than the average spent by member countries of the Organisation for Economic Cooperation and Development (OECD). But U.S. students rank 34th in math in international test scores.
That is after more than 40 years of oversight by the federal Department of Education.
“Sen. Shaheen is engaging in projection. Shaheen is the one who has no idea what she’s talking about,” said Corey DeAngelis with the Education Freedom Institute and a senior fellow at the American Culture Project.
“The bill to eliminate the Department of Education uses block grants to send education back to the states. She implies Pell Grants would be eliminated, for example, but the bill filed by Sen. Rounds moves that program to the Treasury Department.”
Jay Greene, a Senior Research Fellow in The Heritage Foundation’s Center for Education Policy, says that whether Trump ends it nor not, the days of the federal Education Department are numbered.
“As the pork-barrel politics of the Department of Education are laid bare, the survival of the department will depend on the continuing political influence of the unions. Unfortunately for the unions, their influence over the Republican Party has largely evaporated as they went all-in on backing Democrats. And even among Democrats, their influence will shrink as the new Baby Bust reduces student enrollments and the number of unionized teachers serving that declining pool.”
But with Shaheen’s current term ending in 2026, those union activists are a key part of her coalition.
“Sen. Shaheen seems more concerned about virtue signaling than real results,” said DeAngelis. “It may make her feel good to say she supports a Department of Education, but that empty signaling does nothing to help kids. That bureaucratic blob steals vital resources from children so adults in D.C. can profit. Get rid of it and send the money back to the states.”
