Closing The Department Of Education
Building America's Golden Age By Returning Education Policies To The States
In the early 1990s I had a client who was a second grader teacher in the Portland Public School District, by far the largest district in Oregon. She literally, I’m not exaggerating, did not know what the word “future” meant. She thought it had something to do with “four.” She insisted that “future” meant that a number should be multiplied times four. She was about age 50 and had been teaching for well over 20 years. Call me racist, but I assumed she still had her job because she was black. Now, I am not so sure. Now, I believe she still had her job because standards for teachers in that school district had been lowered so much, she probably had many low-IQ colleagues.
Fast forward to the year 2000. That was the year I first became aware that Leftist indoctrination was sucking up so much classroom time there was little time left for education. It was President Obama, after all, who used threat of withholding Dept. of Ed funds from schools to force them to allow boys in girls’ restrooms. Will closing the Department of Education start the process of canceling the indoctrination and replacing it with education which the students so desperately need? SEE TWO ARTICLES BELOW
Here is a timely article about closing the Department of Education which I published during the election:
PROMISES MADE
President Trump said it again!^ During his second rally in Butler, Pennsylvania, on Saturday, he said he would close down the US Department of Education and return oversight of public school education to the states, where it belongs.
“Nobody is going to stand for education that’s not proper. We’re moving education back to the states. You’re going to be running your own education. What is more important that education? We rank at the bottom of every list. They rank 40 major countries. We’re at the bottom. But we’re top of the list as the cost per pupil. We spend more per pupil, per student than any other country anywhere in the world. So we are number one in that. And we are number 38, 39, 40 every single time (in quality of outcome).
You have Denmark, you have Sweden, you have Norway, you have China, always the top five. Can you believe it? China is always top five. That’s amazing.
But, we’re going to move our education back to the states. So, places like Indiana, and Iowa, and Idaho, and states that you don’t even hear too much of because they are so good, so well run. They are going to run their own education. And you know what is going to come out of that? A Denmark, a Norway, a Sweden, maybe, I don’t even know. China. Can you imagine? China with 1.5 billion people, is a top five. We are close to 40. We are 40 sometimes.”
LITERACY: UP, UP, UP, DOWN, DOWN, DOWN
Since its inception, the Department Of Education has presided over a REVERSAL of literacy skills among adult Americans from 99.4% in 1979, the year President Carter created the agency, down to 79% today.
As a young senator, Joe Biden voted “yes” to establish the Department of Education. The teachers’ unions have kept him in office so he does not care that, with each succeeding year from its inception, the quality of education has gone down, down, down. Based upon the results, it is apparent Democrats’ goal was to DESTROY the quality of education in America, NOT enhance it.
The current adult literacy rate in America is 79% according to the US Department of Education, the very agency who presided over this astounding decrease. Shocking and disgusting and needless.
Literacy in America steadily increased until the 1980s. In 1870 80% of adults could read & write and by 1900 that figure had risen to 89.3%. Even though fewer than 75% of adults in 1940 had completed high school, 97.1% could read and write. The very year the Department of Education was established, 1979, 99.4% of American adults could read and write. That was the highest the literacy rate ever got, and it has dropped continually ever since.
Not only has adult literacy rates dropped dramatically since federal bureaucrats and politicians bullied their way into education, but so have test scores for ALL skills, at all grade levels. Recently released data revealed reading, writing and math skills among 9-year-olds dramatically have declined significantly in recent years. The decline was the worst for black children, producing an even wider gap between blacks and other races.
TAKING CONTROL AWAY FROM PARENTS & LOCAL COMMUNITIES
Since the Carter Administration established the federal Department of Education in 1979 educational levels have steadily declined. As the new senator from Delaware, Joe Biden voted to centralize control of education in the DC Swamp. With his re-election approaching, Democrat Carter needed the support of the powerful teachers’ unions, and giving them this cabinet level agency ensured their members would fund his re-election and vote for him. [The US House and Senate were controlled by Democrats during Carter’s four years.]
This writer asserts that the decline in the skills Americans need in life was and is intentional. The less educated the populace, the easier we are to control, and bureaucrats are all about control. Even if dummying down Americans was not the original goal of federal bureaucrats & politicians, they are now fully aware that their policies have produced generations less educated than preceding generations, yet have shown little desire to correct this horrible trend.
Parents were the first to sound the alarm over the decline in educational standards and have been pushing for school choice for decades, with some help from Republicans. Democrats have furiously fought back, refusing to give up their power.
The head of the federal agency that keeps track of education levels recently admitted that all skill levels, including reading, have continually declined since the 1970s.
“In fact, the declines from this assessment show that students in 2022 are performing at a similar level to two decades ago,” said Carr, adding that the report shows even high-performing student scores declined for the first time in the past decade. “They also represent the first-ever decline in mathematics and one of the largest-ever declines in reading since the long-term trend assessment was first given in the 1970s."
Peggy Carr, commissioner of the National Center for Education Statistics.
Education Officials Declare: Oregon's Black & Brown Students Are Too Stupid To Learn
The Oregon Board of Education voted unanimously last week to continue the 2020 suspension of the most important high school graduation requirements, the Oregonian, the state’s largest newspaper, reported. During their exist assessment to receive their high school diplomas, students will no longer be required to prove basic mastery of reading, writing, …
Seattle Public Schools Have Gone Insane
My sister had an obese friend. When she walked in the house, my three-year-old nephew proclaimed “she’s having a baby.” Obviously, the little tyke assumed her belly fat was a pregnancy. Around that same time he noticed that men have beards and women don’t, AND women have “boobies” and men don’t. What a shame that “adults” running Chief Sealth Intern…
I believe closing the Dept. of Ed is best for the US, however, knowing teachers personally I also believe that local education must be guided back to a curriculum that teaches and does not indoctrinate. I want my children and grandchildren to be as well equipped for life as possible, and to me that means the chance to instill my values in them. Being in competition with the state is not my idea of why I pay taxes to support schools. Teach the children to reading, writing, and math. Throw in world and American history. Civics so they'll know how the government is supposed to work. Shop and home economics to prepare them for the real future where you have to fix a broken window or prepare a meal.
Bottom line is teachers can teach if they're allowed to do so. Bringing education back to the states says your teachers will teach what your state requires, customized to your state's needs.
If you're in a red state, congratulations. In bluest blue WA State it's still marching in the other direction of DEI, pro-early sex education and trans protections, and anti-parental rights. Laws still being passed despite much dissent.