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.

  • kescusay@lemmy.world
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    7 hours ago

    Let’s think this through… The US Department of Education’s functions are primarily:

    1. Establishing policies on federal financial aid for education and distributing as well as monitoring those funds.
    2. Collecting data on America’s schools and disseminating research.
    3. Focusing national attention on key educational issues.
    4. Prohibiting discrimination and ensuring equal access to education.

    (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.

    • zabadoh@ani.social
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      18 minutes ago

      …abolishing the DOE will reduce the tax burden on citizens living in blue states…

      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.

    • CharlesDarwin@lemmy.world
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      6 hours ago

      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.

    • NJSpradlin@lemmy.world
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      5 hours ago

      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.