Photo: AFP
As part of his initiative to cut waste in government spending, Donald Trump on Thursday implemented plans to shrink and eliminate the Department of Education. That plan has sent shock waves through Democratic circles, as they contend the Department is a necessary tool to oversee America’s schools. Trump, however, contends that he wants to return authority over schools to the states. What, exactly, would the elimination of a department that has only been around since 1979 mean for American education?
According to Jay Greene, a senior research fellow for the Heritage Foundation’s Center for Education Policy, the abolition of the Department wouldn’t be so earth-shaking. Speaking on 710 WOR’s Mendte in the Morning program, Greene suggests that the Department is unnecessary because the programs that it oversees would survive.
“Most of the programs that the Department administers were created before the Department was created,” Greene told host Larry Mendte. “So, essentially, all we’re talking about is who will manage the legislatively required programs that already exist, that existed before and will exist after the Department is abolished. And so, this is really just a bureaucratic restructuring. It doesn’t get rid of programs, it doesn’t cut funding, it doesn’t close any schools. It’s just a change in the administration, not a change in the programs and services and funding delivered to America’s schools.”
Greene laid out the downside to the union strategy to back only Democrats for the past forty-five years: “Since Jimmy Carter they’ve gone all-in with the Democratic party, and the problem with that strategy politically is, if you lose big time, then you’re going to lose the payment that you’ve been receiving from the party that you’ve fully backed. So, they fully backed the Democrats, they lost, and now they’re losing the benefit that they received from Jimmy Carter.”
Photo Credit: Getty Images