Republican senator introduces bill to abolish US Department of Education
Republican senator introduces bill to abolish US Department of Education
Mike Rounds submitted bill that needs supermajority to pass, unlikely even in GOP-controlled Senate next year
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.
fuck every republican who voted for this.
Republicans are, in fact, fucking you. Because all you do is complain online like all the other democrats.
We lost to an orange rapist criminal because losers like you don't protest with guns, and just finger waggle until the cops break it up.
Grow some balls like the Black Panther party and buy a fucking gun and protest peacefully or continue arguing from your basement while Republicans gut our programs that help the disenfranchised without consequences.
Let's think this through... The US Department of Education's functions are primarily:
- Establishing policies on federal financial aid for education and distributing as well as monitoring those funds.
- Collecting data on America's schools and disseminating research.
- Focusing national attention on key educational issues.
- 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.
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"
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.
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.
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.
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.
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.
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.
...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.
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?
These people are just such pieces of shit. They truly want to destroy this country and give a decisive lead to the likes of China.
Letting states like Texas run rampant with teaching total bullshit like creationism without any restraint whatsoever is going to further down this country and we might as well cede all advances to other countries.
Ok yes I’m concerned about marginalized and disabled students, but I’m mostly concerned about Americans being too damn dumb already
10 mins later: Mississippi is introducing a mandated co-op middle and high school. Where students only need to be in class 2 days a week and get hands on experience in desirable fields such as farming/agriculture. You just have to work 2 days a week to make sure you get your credits to get to the next grade!
Duh. That's because :
“The federal Department of Education has never educated a single student, and it’s long past time to end this bureaucratic department that causes more harm than good,” Rounds said
/s
But can they actually be made dumber?
They re-elected the guy who gave the department of education to a member of the Amway (prolific pyramid scheme) family, so honestly I’m not going to say no, but the rich have clearly started tossing industrial excavation tools into the hole we find ourselves in.
FUCK ALL THE WAY OFF, SOUTH DAKOTA.
You're a deadbeat state.
The federal share of South Dakota's state budget has been above 40% since 2021, when it spiked to 56%.
The federal government provides aid to states and local governments in the form of grants for programs like education, transportation, and Medicaid.
If the feds ever pays more than half of a states budget that state should immediately have all standing politicians removed and replaced with a temp government while the Fed undoes whatever garbage policies caused that
In the meantime that state and it's citizens don't get representation, they didn't fucking pay the membership dues to the union
No taxation without representation works the other way
100% agreed
Traitors, all of them.
Republicans, pro-stupid since 1980!
It is what keeps them in power, after all.
Fine, just murder it already. Sorry we wanted society to have enlightenment. Sorry that got in the way of your insatiable greed.
And religious indoctrination.
Critics warn this could undermine protections for students with disabilities and marginalized groups.
Meanwhile Republicans:
At first I thought, "ok they've got their mind made up no matter what, nothing can convince them" Then I realized it meant they were enjoying marginalized students being at a bigger disadvantage. Clever panel.
IGNORANCE IS STRENGTH.
Ignorance is Bliss!"Where ignorance is bliss, 'tis folly to be wise." Thomas Gray [TIL]
Any bets on how far US will fall in global rankings? I am guessing maybe two or three places in the next five years
Why do some people think that smart immigrants would want to come to the US if the general population is hard to deal with? What part of quality of life do they not understand?
Okay, let’s take some prosaic examples.
— H1-B visa man goes to a restaurant. Restaurant staff are racists, QOL degrades, H1-B visa man rethinks staying long term in the U.S.
— H1-B visa man enrolls children in private school. Private school staff is religious fundies, and education at a public level would be cheaper and better in another country. QOL degrades, H1-B visa man decides to move from the U.S.
For most skilled immigrants the calculus is based around money and what they get out of it, you shouldn’t expect there’s any intrinsic worth to staying in the U.S. if standards are shit and qualify of life degrades.
So in simple terms, you’ll have dumber people on average in house and smarter people on average in other countries.
Hell, who is going to want to come study in the US on a visa if we have mass deportations going on? It’s a pretty safe bet that many of those visa holders will get stopped and challenged multiple times by roaming gangs of thugs looking for illegal immigrants to haul away. And it’s also a pretty safe bet that some of them will simply claim the visas are fake or otherwise invalid and make those students lives miserable as they try to sort things out.
They will come for the pay and laugh as they leave.
Easiest way to keep voters dumb. The GOP relies on people voting against their own best interests.
And we know Trump knows this, as he was recorded years before stating the economy does better under Democrats....
Also remember his first attempt running for President was in 2000, when he said his running mate was going to be Oprah Winfrey. He held events in California, Florida, and Minnesota before dropping out. I believe he talked about 1 or 2 other presidential runs as well, but never had his ducks in a row. So it was about his 4th time attempting to figure it out in 2016, 5th 2020 and now his 6th time running in 2024.
well, duh. it's the natural progression of the gops war on education theyve been waging since the 60s. turns out it's way easier to get people to vote for you if you master propaganda and refuse to teach people critical thought.
They done great job too. Not only does my mega family now believe that moon landing was faked, but that the earth is flat. Seriously they are getting dumber by the second. All based on where they get their information.
I know it has an potential to cause great harm, but maybe we should get back to intelligence (or even basic reality) tests, and then weight votes proportional to the score.
Just some agree/disagree statements...
The earth is shaped more like a sphere than a disc.
The human beings have never landed on the moon.
The 2020 general election was fair, and without meaningful fraud.
The efficacy of vaccines are well documented, going back over 100 years.
I'm sure we can come up with a lot.
America has a long history of trying to figure out how to make the votes of certain groups fractional of "true" Americans, the whole 3/5ths compromise and all that.
I don't think we should be trying to introduce modern day versions of that. I'd much rather see voting day be made a federal holiday, and voting become mandatory.
Trump (and Republicans) love the poorly educated. This is all part of their plan to keep people stupid so they're easily manipulated, thus keeping the GOP in power.
This is all part of their plan to keep people stupid
and poor from unplanned pregnancies they don't want and can't abort, and future unplanned pregnancies due to lack of contraceptives.
This is the chance for one underpaid government tech worker to delete the wrong folder in the transfer and erase the debt
It makes for a good movie plot, but there are likely backups, etc. that could be recovered fairly easily.
Just keep going with that logic and defunding every public service and let them separate every state until they all become 50 small autonomous countries.
Red states are about to find out how much they depend on blue state money.
I've seen GOP Voters on a local news app talking about how they can't wait to see what happens when "California and New York stop asking other states and Big Daddy Government for hand outs!"
And I had to sit down and say "Oh my sweet summer child"
California is the 5th Largest and Most Powerful Economy in the world lol
Putin would love nothing more than for that to happen.
Honestly, let them. Then all the blue states can form a union while the red states become a balkanized bastion of hatred.
It's been a fierce debate and position held by some since before the US was even officially anything.
The people who want a less federal power also often forget that the US has, until now, been largely blessed by not having to deal with an outside enemy state on their own same soil for prolonged time. Loose control could mean that becomes a real and actual problem.
That guy looks like he always beats his wife for enjoying sex.
Taliban has made their country shittier than republicans have made america and god dammit they're not losing that battle anymore.
So he probably "thinks": "school did not work for me, why waste money on other having a chance?"
I don't know the guy in question, but the more likely conservative mindset is "why bother educating the unwashed masses? It's a waste of resources when we could instead keep them ignorant, under our thumbs, and working in our factories for next to nothing. We'll just make sure that education is available for people who can pay for it (us)."
Clear the way for more educated states to populate our best universities and create a generational gap in education and idiocy then. Morons.
It's sad because I want them to have what they really want but they don't want to let people like me give it to them.
They want to be able to support themselves on with an honest wage in their small town and afford basic luxuries. I want that for them too but instead they think they have to be part of an oppressive class and beg for scraps from their corporate masters to get it. They like this better because it keeps the colored folk away.
Ahh, the ate-too-much-lead-as-a-child-mental-illness-party strikes again
Pros/Cons:
-No more student loans
-No more endless IEP reports
-No more standardized education criteria
Thoughts?
No (white, straight, christian, able bodied) child left behind.
IEP is necessary for kids with special needs.
It provides clear and protected guidelines which allow a kid with physical disabilities like being born missing 8 fingers to be allowed something like a tablet to write out essays through dictation rather than be forced to try keep up with children without such challenges in writing said essays with pen and paper when their ability to come up with an answer has nothing to do with their ability to wiggle a writing instrument upon the surface of card stock.
I think you already know people thoughts on these.
I thought so, then they voted for Trump. Did they actually want this or did they not know?
IEP ensure that all children receive a free and appropriate public education in the least restricted way possible. Unless you want kids with special needs just shoved in a special education classroom until their 18, they are absolutely necessary.
As a parent of a child with special needs, all of this scares the crap out of me. The second the department of education is gone so will the enforcement of the IDEA act. And that is the only thing keeping states like the one I live in from providing these services. It is already hard enough to get schools to do what they are supposed to. I've had to threaten a lawsuit against ours, and it's one of the better school districts.
The second they don't have to provide for these kids they will shove them in the deepest darkest hole and leave them there until they age out.
