DEFUND US DEPARTMENT OF EDUCATION
Rep. Massie Introduces Bill To Close Agency That Has Done So Much Damage to Education In America
Since it’s inception, the Department Of Education has presided over a REVERSAL of literacy skills among Americans from 99.4% in 1979, the year President Carter created the agency, down to 79% today.
Last week, Kentucky Congressman Thomas Massie introduced a bill to abolish the Education Department. It reads: "The Department of Education shall terminate on December 31, 2023."
As a young senator, Joe Biden voted to establish the Department of Education. The teachers’ unions have kept him in office so no one expects him to sign any legislation that decreases their power over public education; however, Massie’s bill should start a nationwide discussion about the abject failure of the US Department of Education. Based upon the results, it is apparent their goal was to DESTROY the quality of education in America, NOT enhance it.
LITERACY: UP, UP, UP, DOWN, DOWN, DOWN
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.
I agree with you completely that this useless agency needs to be put down ! I am a retired educator from NJ with 36 years in the classroom. I was under the NJEA and NEA dictatorship, and fought many times as a VP union rep to do what was right for our staff and students. We, as a union, were very successful, and were recognized by our state union representatives as leaders in our methods and results. The Department of Education was nothing more than a money grabbing, power structure to put their "ideas" into the classroom. Way back when, this was not recognized as it is today, but the effect was just the same. So go for it Rep. Massie and put these socialists out of the lives of todays educators and students. We need you...
It’s about time. Also stop funding Randi whiner-Weingarten and the teachers union.