I got this in my email on the 9th and just saw it today- yes I suck at keeping up with email. Interesting. What are your thoughts? I think it needs to be gone and have thought so for years. The government has done a lot of damage to our education institutions, whether it be K-12 grades or college level. For a country that is supposed to be so superior we are vastly inferior when it comes to education. 

 

The Libertarian Party strongly supports U.S. House bill H.R. 399, which was filed today by Rep Tom Massie (R–KY), along with seven co-sponsors, to abolish the federal Department of Education.

 
“Libertarians are encouraged to see a bill that brings hope to the promise of actually, finally, abolishing the Department of Education,” said Nicholas Sarwark, chair of the Libertarian National Committee. “The DOE’s primary accomplishments have been to drive up federal taxes and debt, drive up local and state taxes, impose mounds of red tape on schools, and drive down the quality education in the United States. It has made schooling an infuriating and demoralizing experience for teachers, parents, and schoolchildren.”

 
In striking contrast to most of today’s federal and state laws, many of which are hundreds of pages long and rarely read by the lawmakers who vote on them, H.R. 899 consists of one simple sentence: “The Department of Education shall terminate on December 31, 2018.”

 
“Localizing education will dramatically improve our schools, allowing them to innovate and address the needs of individual students, and to prepare them for a fulfilling and successful future,” said Sarwark.

 
The Libertarian Party platform on education states:

 
Education is best provided by the free market, achieving greater quality, accountability and efficiency with more diversity of choice. Recognizing that the education of children is a parental responsibility, we would restore authority to parents to determine the education of their children, without interference from government. Parents should have control of and responsibility for all funds expended for their children’s education.

 

This description of the DoE's function I googled and posted below is an oxymoron. How can an agency who "is not heavily involved in the curricula or educational standards" be doing that very thing. I know it says there is no interference with standards and accreditation but that's a load of bull. When you read the history of how it was started, then demoted, then resurrected and all of the rest of it, it's infuriating. It's not constitutional, hell most of the agencies aren't. It just goes to show how the government (the politicians, lobbyists, etc.) are all about Them and not the People and hasn't been for a very long time. The last line is especially ridiculous because it is a glaring lie.

 

The primary functions of the Department of Education are to "establish policy for, administer and coordinate most federal assistance to education, collect data on US schools, and to enforce federal educational laws regarding privacy and civil rights." 


 

<div>Unlike the systems of most other countries, education in the United States is highly decentralized, and the federal government and Department of Education are not heavily involved in determining curricula or educational standards (with the recent exception of the No Child Left Behind Act). This has been left to state and local school districts. The quality of educational institutions and their degrees is maintained through an informal private process known as accreditation, over which the Department of Education has no direct public jurisdictional control.

 
The Department's mission is: to promote student achievement and preparation for global competitiveness by fostering educational excellence and ensuring equal access.

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