Bye bye Department of Education – for now

Bye bye Department of Education – for now

Trump has signed an executive order “eliminating” the Department of Education.  He said “The Department of Education is a big con job… we spend more per pupil than any other country in the world, but we’re ranked 40th.

That means something’s really wrong, right? I say send it back to the states.” 

Of course, Trump would know a con job when he sees one. Naturally, all the republicans are voicing their support while all the democrats are pretending to be aghast. Chris Van Hollen (D-Md) said this was an “outrageous, illegal scam. Trump and his Cabinet of billionaires are trying to destroy the Department of Education

so they can privatize more schools. The result—making it even harder to ensure that ALL students have access to a quality education.” Van Hollen is lying and knows it. Even he knows that privatizing schools will improve education. But he has a toney education – Swarthmore, Harvard, Georgetown Law. Where did he send his kids to school? Certainly not the public schools in PG county.  But democrats see their buds getting less money and could care less about the kids’ education that they so suddenly have passion for. So spare me all the crocodile tears.

The department is not eliminated. Only congress can do that but Trump can zero it out of the budget, terminate its employees and route its “essential” functions to other departments. Although republicans in the House and Senate are proposing bills to officially get rid of the department those efforts will fail. No way will they get 60 votes in the Senate. The department did nothing to raise proficiency in our schools. But was that ever its intent? That chore lies with the local school districts not with the federal government. Thus the failure is local not federal. The Department of Education like most of the federal departments exisst to funnel tax payers monies to special interest groups and not to effect change. In that the Department of Education was successful.

But the department was low hanging fruit. What about the Department of Energy? Hasn’t it been as spectacular a failure? Do we really need a department of commerce, of labor, interior, agriculture, transportation, veteran affairs and housing and urban development? Maybe you can justify defense, attorney general, state and health and human services but the others? Really? Just show me how federal intervention in any of these areas benefits the public writ large rather than a chosen few.

I admire Elon Musk. He knew that the left would go after him and after Tesla. Yet he has not wavered. Some critics are saying that the savings found by DOGE are miniscule. An $11 million savings was reported on canceling leases for some empty IRS office space. Piddling? To be sure but Musk is confident that he can find $1 trillion in total savings. Remember “How do you eat an elephant?” One bite at a time.

Has any democrat spoken out against the Tesla terrorism going on in the country? They either are cheering it on or afraid to criticize it for fear that they themselves will be torched. Who is the nazi now?

Speaking of Musk. I have written about the poor built quality of Teslas, their awful frequency of repair record and yet their fiercely loyal customer base. Well that may be changing especially with the left’s targeting Teslas, dealerships and charging stations. Now all the cybertrucks have been recalled as well. Musk is brilliant. Perhaps he is hanging on to Tesla because he is stubborn. Yet it may be time to sell Tesla and concentrate on his other businesses.

More evidence that the left hates Musk is the lack of praise for bringing home the stranded astronauts. It is really sad to see the demise of NASA. But then again, this may show the public that private enterprise can replace the government. Now to do it in education.

Randi “Whine”garten head of American Federation of Teachers is beside herself as is Becky Pringle head of the National Education Association. Both see their gravy train going away. Weingarten says that Trump’s plan is to “voucherize and privatize our public schools, we know what they’re doing. They want to dismantle public education in this country, and we know that public

education is the foundation of this or any democracy.” She also says “So, billionaires—kids of billionaires—they have it, they go to private schools. “Everyone else, 90% go to public schools. Don’t take away their opportunity.” I guess she overlooks the fact that many of her union officials and teachers send their kids to private schools She also overlooks that vouchers and charter schools, which she vehemently opposes, can be part of publicly funded education. I only wish she and Pringle were so animated and passionate about educating children rather than protecting their half million dollar salaries.