On Tuesday Betsy DeVos was elected as Secretary of Education after a tie in the Senate. According to the U.S. Constitution in Article 1 Section 3 the Vice President is President of the Senate, but has no vote unless they are equally divided. Since the Senate was divided on passing DeVos as Secretary of Education, Mike Pence was the deciding vote. Now before the vote Democrats had a night long protest giving speeches against DeVos and continue to protest after her election. Even students in NYC staged a “walkout” to protest the results, even though this is obviously harming what little education they’re already receiving by not attending it. First off I’d like to explain a few things legally and then some positions that Democrats don’t seem to understand. The Secretary of Education is the head of the Department of Education, which is a federal (keyword being “federal”) department that’s purpose is 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.” Here’s the thing, most school funding and responsibilities are left to the states, and the only time this department affected educational standards was under the No Child Left Behind Act (which was repealed in 2015). Funny thing is most millennials absolutely despise standardized, centralized and generalized education and do not realize it. They prefer choice to pursue what works for them, which is what DeVos has publicly supported for years.
The Department of Education is apparently one of the smallest cabinet-level departments, but gains a budget over 50 billion dollars every year (that is all of Donald Trump’s wealth 13 times over). The problem with any sort of authority funded through expected taxes is that they will do anything to play the system and get more funding. Whether that’s maintenance workers trying to spend an entire budget in order to get more money for next time, or getting as many people reliant on welfare programs in order to claim they are “helping” more than before. I’ve heard from past federal employees that even bomb disposal units will “disarm” something that is obviously not a bomb simply to look good and gain more funding for their department. As Ronald Reagan said, “A government bureau is the nearest thing to eternal life we will ever see on this earth.” My question is not about the panic over Betsy DeVos who simply supports school choice, but what is the point of the Department of Education? States and local governments will know more about their people and how to take care of them far better than some department far off in Washington DC. States fund public schools and therefore should be responsible for those schools.
What’s frustrating and almost ironic is how hard it is to education yourself on how to make a difference against the education system. This is something I’ve looked into for a long while since education is one of the issues I’m very much interested in. I took a class on state and local government in hopes I’d find a hint there, but still didn’t learn anything new. What I can say is how the public school system works in most states. A sad thing is states gain funding for public schools from the taxpayer whether that taxpayer sends their kids to public school or not. This means these schools will never have the incentive to expand through competition (which is the foundation to our once free-market economy). Schools no longer have to win the approval of the parents to be successful, but instead have to be able to create good looking figures for the higher-ups. If homeschoolers and private schoolers didn’t have to fund the public schools, and average Americans weren’t forced to attend specific schools, then public schools wouldn’t disappear, they would be forced to change their style to an educational format that Americans actually agree with.
Currently we have millions of kids being sent off to college not to become doctors or scientists, but because a High School education did not properly prepare them for a living. This devalues the point of a High School Diploma if everyone is expected to have a College Degree. I mean if you have your degree when you apply for a job and everyone else has a degree, how exactly is that degree an “advantage” anymore? If we’re all expected to go to college and get a well paying job, then why are Democrats trying to make McDonalds a carrier choice with 15$ minimum wages? One day people are going to realize we payed a hundred grand for degrees that might get us a slightly better chance of being hired at McDonalds. Under the Obama Administration schools were shamed for their fattening foods and forced to recognize transgenderism (which since it has yet to become too politically explicit the American College of Pediatricians literally called it child abuse), yet no one thought the denial of free-speech and the lack of basic economics should be a priority. As arch-Democrat Hillary Clinton said, “education is not a family issue.” They do not want America’s youth to be raised by the values and beliefs of our forefathers, instead they want them to be left reliant on government funds and government promises. Once again the cycle continues, after tricking thousands into student loans the government could then expand with promises of “free” college. However the more the government gives you, the more they own you. Betsy DeVos might seem like an enemy to public schools because she supports school choice, and the advantages to their privatized competition. What get’s me is when the last presidency raised a bunch of kids who didn’t even know how a loan worked, could education really get worse?
PS: More people under the age of 35 are living with their parents than with a spouse for the first time in American history. Oddly enough, Baby Boomers and Generation X who are still stuck taking care of their grandkids all grew up in a time when the Department of Education didn’t exist. Millennials got let down by a recession when it was their time to enter employment, but their parents are the ones with less education and still survived it.