Critical race theory, social and emotional learning, DEI, social justice, and other forms of wokeness are nothing new to the American education system.
Some buy into the divisive concepts, but most parents simply want their children to be proficient in math, reading, science, and other subjects when they graduate high school.
The past four years saw the public square become overtly obsessed with sexual and gender rhetoric. News cycles have been dominated with divisive education issues, such as attempted changes to Title IX, transgender rights, and the use of locker rooms and restrooms.
Again, parents simply want their children to graduate with essential competences and skills that don’t compromise or even sacrifice their ability to become successful citizens.
We’re not speaking in the literal sense of children being sacrificed on altars as was practiced in ancient times, but we are sacrificing children in 21st-century terms. Children are graduating without the basic skills and knowledge to be successful in life. Parents send children to day care and public school only to be lost in a cookie-cutter system.
Help Is on the Way
Voters handed President Donald Trump a decisive win in November. One of his campaign promises was to dismantle the federal Department of Education. However, what his definition of “dismantle” is will determine the future of education in America.
There are definitive actions that can be taken to get the federal government out of education and curb the current insanity.
One is to use the authority under the 10th Amendment to the U.S. Constitution as it pertains to states’ rights. Control of education must reside in state authority, because it is implemented by the states and administered at the local level. Communities are better positioned to determine what’s best for their residents.
After all, we have seen over time how out of touch the federal government is regarding education.
Trump can also make a significant impact by eliminating government control of the student loan program and terminating gratuitous education contracts and grants.
The student loan program must be returned to the private sector. When the federal government runs things, it’s all too easy to stick taxpayers with an unnecessary tab. Student loan forgiveness, as former President Joe Biden tried doing, may be a good campaign promise, but it’s not a practice that promotes accountability and responsibility.
Terminating contracts and grants that do nothing but pad the pockets of education elites—such as unions, publishers, consultants, lobbyists, and special-interest groups—can immediately save taxpayers billions of dollars.
Eliminating those contracts may not put an end to all of the programs that drive much of the woke ideology, but it will go a long way toward removing the heavy hand of the federal government from education. Also, defunding grants will reduce the number of frivolous and unnecessary research projects that end with an unread report and provide no educational value.
If states want to invest in education research, then states can fund such projects themselves.
A Great Cost to Society
Our republic needs a well-educated populace, but when President Jimmy Carter and Congress created the federal Department of Education in 1979, they did a disservice to society.
It generated a federal bureaucracy that issues mandates that provide little or no significant value to children’s education.
It also set in motion the dumbing down of education through dictating a college-emphasizing, one-size-fits-all model that continually proves to be sacrificing millions of children on the altar of bureaucratic and special-interest group power, control, and profit.
When we sacrifice our children’s education, we ultimately sacrifice the future of our republic.
We publish a variety of perspectives. Nothing written here is to be construed as representing the views of The Daily Signal.
This article was originally published at www.dailysignal.com
