Republican lawmakers took a first step in an effort to shutter the U.S. Department of Education, a move that President-elect Trump called for on the campaign trail.
South Dakota Senator Mike Rounds introduced the Returning Education to Our States Act on Thursday.
The bill would eliminate the Education Department and redistribute all federal programs under the department.
‘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.
He argued local control is best when it comes to education.
The proposal comes after Trump called for the department to be closed down in October.
‘We want federal education dollars to follow the student rather than propping up a bloated and radical bureaucracy in Washington, D.C.,” Trump said. ‘We want to close the federal Department of Education.’
He and his MAGA followers have accused the Education Department of ‘indoctrinating young people.’
‘We will drain the government education swamp and stop the abuse of your taxpayer dollars to indoctrinate America’s youth with all sorts of things that you don’t want to have our youth hearing,’ Trump also said at a rally in September.
The modern day Education Department was created with the passage of the Department of Education Organization Act in Congress in 1979.
It combined multiple federal agencies across the government that previously focused on education and began operations in 1980.
However, federal government activities regarding education date back to the 1800s.
The current Department of Education is primarily responsible for administering federal funding for education and managing federal student loan and other financial aid programs.
It spends roughly $79 billion a year on primary and secondary education programs. The money is discretionary, meaning it is annually set by Congress through the appropriations process.
The department’s spending makes up less than 3 percent of the total federal budget.
In his announcement, Rounds claimed in the 45 years since the department’s creation, it has grown with a budget 449 percent larger than when it started.
He argued despite spending $16,000 per student each year, standardized test scores have dropped over the past decade.
‘For years, I’ve worked toward removing the federal Department of Education,’ Rounds said. ‘I’m pleased that President-elect Trump shares this vision, and I’m excited to work with him and Republican majorities in the Senate and House to make this a reality.’
The bill would serve as a roadmap for dismantling the department. It would redirect programs currently housed there to the Interior, Treasury, Health and Human Services, Labor and State Departments.
It is not yet clear whether the effort will move forward quickly or whether it will receive the necessary support in Congress.
If the department is eliminated, oversight would be left to states which could impact some of the country’s more vulnerable students including those with disabilities.
But some experts have warned they are not just concerned with the Education Department being dismantled but are also sounding the alarms on the damage that can be done to programs and oversight if the department is starved of funds or slowly strangled from within.
Trump announced businesswoman and former head of the Small Business Administration Linda McMahon is his pick for education secretary.
He called her a fierce advocate who will fight tirelessly for school ‘Choice’ across the country.
The country’s largest labor union the National Education Association which represents public school teachers and supporting staff blasted Trump choosing McMahon as a single he couldn’t care less about students’ futures.
It argued that rather than strengthening public schools, her ‘only mission is to eliminate the Department of Education and take away taxpayer dollars from public schools.’