http://stossel.blogs.foxbusiness.com/2010/12/10/close-the-education-department/December 10, 2010 11:40 AM UTC by John Stossel
This week’s release of the latest international education test comparisons makes me wonder why there aren’t more calls to kill off the U.S. Department of Education.
Eight years ago, Bush signed the “No Child Left Behind Act,” which costs the government $25 billion a year. He promised that this would fix the K-12 education problem:
“We've spent billions of dollars with lousy results. So now it's time to spend billions of dollars and get good results.”
But of course, his central planning did not bring the good results. The US spends more than $100,000 on a kids’ entire K-12 education.
So how did the US do? On this latest test, we were crushed by countries that spend just $40,000 per kid.
George Bush summed up the arrogance of government planners when he signed No Child Left Behind:
“Signing this bill is the end of a long, long time of people sitting in rooms trying to hammer out differences. It's a great symbol of what is possible in Washington when good people come together to do what's right.”
Yet it was. When “good people in Washington come together to do what’s right”, they waste billions of dollars and make life worse.
The federal Education Department spends about 100 billion dollars a year! Kill it.
Reagan wanted to, but couldn’t, because he had to deal with a big spending Democratic Congress. Throughout the 1980s, the abolition of the Department of Education was a part of the Republican Party platform.
Even Bob Dole wanted to kill it! His platform read: "the federal government has no constitutional authority to be involved in school curricula or to control jobs in the work place. That is why we will abolish the Department of Education, end federal meddling in our schools, and promote family choice at all levels of learning."
But now, amidst more talk about government spending, the Ed Department lives on?
The real solution: get government out of education.
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Topic: Close the Education Department! (Read 1171 times)