Summary
Senator Mike Rounds (R-SD) introduced the Returning Education to Our States Act, aiming to abolish the U.S. Department of Education, a long-time Republican goal aligned with Trump’s agenda.
The bill proposes redistributing the department’s $200 billion budget and responsibilities to other federal agencies and states, such as shifting federal student loans to the Treasury.
Critics warn this could undermine protections for students with disabilities and marginalized groups.
While the bill faces significant political hurdles, it reflects broader GOP efforts to reduce federal influence over education policy.
Let’s think this through… The US Department of Education’s functions are primarily:
(Source: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/United_States_Department_of_Education)
Regarding #1, blue states don’t receive nearly as much in financial aid for schools as red states. So abolishing the DOE will reduce the tax burden on citizens living in blue states, at the expense of schools in red states.
Regarding #2, without the DOE compiling this information, it will be up to schools themselves and private research organizations. Badly-performing, severely under-funded schools in red states will, of course, not be able to. Not that they would want to anyway, because without federal assistance, these schools will be in a state of collapse.
Regarding #3, blue states will just focus attention on key educational issues for themselves, while red states focus on fixing their problems by getting bibles into classrooms.
Regarding #4, red states will rapidly descend into systematic discrimination again.
End result: No one will want to hire “graduates” from red states.
This is a self-own of astonishing proportions. The blue states that don’t heavily depend on the DOE will manage, while the educational infrastructure in the red states completely falls apart. And businesses in need of skilled employees who can, y’know, read will recruit primarily in blue states.
And the leopards will roam freely through the streets of MAGA-America, feasting on faces in unprecedented numbers.
Yeah, but those that were dumbed down by this system will be more numerous and will vote for qons even harder, dragging all of us down with them.
The guy is from South Dakota. You know, the state known for being one of the Dakotas.
I’ve heard it called “the lesser of the Dakotas”
Like the other commenter said, they don’t care about their populous except to remain uneducated and easily controllable, solidifying their conservative control. They’ll bribe the highly educated to come in and lead their industries. Look at any third world country, it’s not their ‘poors’ leading industries, it’s global or foreign experts helping them scrape every drop of wealth from their local communities and environment.
There’s no such thing as a “federal education funding tax” applied to each state to collectively fund education across the whole country.
The IRS will collect the same federal tax that it always has, but Republicans will funnel the former federal public education money to their pet projects: “crisis pregnancy centers,” the military, more tax cuts for billionaires, vouchers for discriminatory private schools, etc.
Therefore the Blue states will get even less federal funding in return for the federal taxes that their economies generate, but by no means will their federal tax burden go down.
As a teacher, I have a really strong aversion to framing this as a simple battle between states.
What you’re talking about may well come to pass, but in reality what it means is that an entire generation of children in poor states – through no fault of their own, but solely because of the geography of their birth – will be woefully undereducated and therefore not competitive in the university admissions process or the job market.
Whatever face-feasting-leopard karma we think the adults who voted for Republicans might deserve, their children should have the right to a proper education rather than be saddled with a legacy of poverty and ignorance. And in your scenario it’s apparently going to be up to the blue states to care enough about these kids to help ensure their rights.
Believe me, I’m not happy about this. It’s a very fatalistic view of times to come. I just don’t see how we stop it at this point. The people voted for this.
You describe the already present situation, on a global scale.
I’m waiting, and expecting, in about 10 to 15 years, blue states will start to limit immigration from those states, as the Federal government will have been neutered too much to stop it.
We gave power to someone who has explicitly stated that he wants to be a dictator. We don’t have political power anymore, and we never will again. It’s not about relishing in failure, it’s about accepting reality.
Good luck in either the revolution or the collapse, I don’t think we have more than a decade until then.
Why would you believe taxes will be reduced? We gave fascists power, they don’t have to negotiate anymore.
Fair point, but since they’re planning to basically obliterate the IRS, who is going to check that you’ve paid your federal taxes?