Up for Subsim Debate: Defunding the Department of Education

[CaptainHaplo]

Ok - we all know the US government is running a huge deficit, and it needs to slash its spending. So, I am going to try and start a series of discussions about various areas where spending COULD (but not necessarily should) be cut.

Now in the course of these discussions, I may play some devils advocate on positions I don't necessarily hold, just to get the discusion started.

Lets start with this one:

Defund (partially or in full) the Department of Education.

For 2010, the DoE total budget was $160.5 Billion (http://www2.ed.gov/about/overview/budget/index.html) - which it says accounts for roughly 10.5% of all education spending in the country. The rest comes from local, state and other sources.

The DoE has a mission - and it says it is this:
"to promote student achievement and preparation for global competitiveness by fostering educational excellence and ensuring equal access."
(http://www2.ed.gov/about/overview/fed/role.html)

As the President recently indicated, the quality of education in the US has dropped significantly when compared to the other nations.

"The United States has fallen from top of the class to average in world education rankings, said a report Tuesday that warned of US economic losses from the trend.
The three-yearly OECD Programme for International Student Assessment (PISA) report, which compares the knowledge and skills of 15-year-olds in 70 countries around the world, ranked the United States 14th out of 34 OECD countries for reading skills, 17th for science and a below-average 25th for mathematics"
(http://centerforgloballeadership.wor...tion-rankings/)

So, it is fair to say that while the DoE has seen its budget grow tremendously over the 3 decades of its current existence (though its history is far longer), it is now clear that it is failing in its mission. While the intentions of the DoE are very commendable, results show that despite significant additional "investment", its effectiveness has steadily worsened.

Would it not then be in the best interest of the students of today to entirely defund or drastically reduce the funding of this Department? What would be the impacts - negative and positive, of such actions?

One negative would be the elimination of some student aid via Pell Grants. However, that is a very small "slice of the pie" when compared to the wasted billions. Could a drastically reduced and refocused DoE be more effective, allowing more state and local control over the education children recieve?

While some will argue that "local control" is dangerous, since it would allow for one school to push a specific view (whether left or right, God focused or humanistic), if the local populace support such a school, is it the job of the Federal Government to "protect them from their own stupidity"?

Some interesting debate should follow, I hope. Keep it civil, make your points based on fact and not emotional demagogueary.

Why am I doing this? No - its not to start a war. If we truly expect to sit around jabbering about inane stuff while our government solves problems, then this country is already lost. We the people, from all views politically, have a duty to be part of the solution. So lets all get to it. Lets see if putting our heads together can come up with some solutions to fix the problems we face. Hey, and to all you folks from other parts of the world, pull up a chair and give your perspective too.