Michael Hynes is Superintendent of the Patochogue-Medford public schools on Long Island in New York state.
As an educator, I have no use for the U.S. Department of Education.
The fact is, as parents and educators begin to understand the infinite failures of federal initiatives such as No Child Left Behind, the carrot-on-a-stick incentive on steroids called Race to the Top and the soon-to-be-passed version of the Elementary and Secondary Education Act — dubbed the Every Student Succeeds Act — this bloated department of non-educators has wasted tax dollars and ruined millions of children’s lives over the past four decades.
It is an experiment gone awry and it’s time for the U.S. Department of Education to go.
It’s as simple as that.
Now that our new acting secretary of education will be John King — the man who oversaw New York State’s disastrous rollout of the Common Core State Standards — that only makes my claim that much stronger.
The U.S. Department of Education was formed in 1980 by combining offices from several federal agencies. It now has 4,400 employees and a $68 billion budget.
The department claims to establish policies on federal financial aid for education. It also collects data on our schools and shares research. Finally, it asserts to focus national attention on key educational issues and pretends to prohibit discrimination and ensure equal access to education.
My question is, when was the last time this institution actually produced something positive for our children? According to the Department of Education’s website, its mission is to “promote student achievement and preparation for global competitiveness by fostering educational excellence and ensuring equal access.”
In practice, it has churned out one bad policy after another, policies that have been wreaking havoc on our public schools. This department has left a wake of children who have been tested to death and also degraded educators by reducing them to numbers.
What may have sounded like a good idea at the time, some 35 years ago, has proven to be both inefficient and unconstitutional. I don’t believe in federal control of our schools. I feel many of our parents and teachers can figure out for themselves how to educate our children. The challenge of a great education is best addressed as close to the student as possible. Local control should chart its own courses on education.
I fear the latest iteration of a reauthorization of the Elementary and Secondary Education Act will perpetuate and enforce the terrible educational mindset of “How intelligent are you?” instead of “How are you intelligent?”
You can bet that the Department of Education won’t be far behind waiting to craft and enforce ridiculous policies, technology driven programs and unfunded mandates that schools will have to comply with.
By abolishing this behemoth, we will be better served to identify a child’s strength’s and interests while providing opportunities for all children to soar at the local level — right where all this belongs.
Diane Ravitch's blog 
I’ll re-post a comment I posted earlier on one of the ESSA threads:
“I’ve come to agree [with the commenter I was responding to who was opposed to ESSA]. The more I read about ESSA the more I realize how awful it is. It’s the “states rights” version of public education. “States rights”, as history has taught us, can mean a state’s “right” to own human beings. Now I fear “states rights” is going to mean a state’s “right” to educate (or not) its children however it pleases (or doesn’t). Religion in education? States’ rights. Special education? States’ rights. Equal education? States’ rights. I think we’re going to regret de-fanging the federal government. In fact, there are times I think Arne knew he was overreaching and did it intentionally to generate just this kind of backlash to “the feds”.”
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The feds should still be able to be involved with issues of equity such as civil rights violations, although the department seems to be asleep at the wheel. There may be numerous civil rights violations in charters, but the DOJ under Obama is turning a blind eye. A recent challenge to charters did not come from the DOJ, but from the League of Women Voters. The segregative impact of charters should be investigated because as this link points out, diversity works. I know this for a fact since I taught in a good diverse school district in New York. http://www.schoolsmatter.info/2015/12/the-compelling-research-on-diversity.html
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Retired teacher, you do NOT need a U.S. Dept of Ed to handle civil rights issue.
ABOLISH the Dept. It’s unconstitutional anyway. Read the 10th amendment
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The problem with the U.S. Department of Education is that it has been taken over by neoliberals since the Clinton Administration. As the previous commenter points out, states rights has a sordid history beginning with a state’s right to have slavery which required the Civil War and the Thirteenth and Fourteenth Amendments (federal law) to end.
The neoliberals are the fox in the hen house that has allowed the right-wing to accomplish its decades long agenda to abolish a federal role in education.
What is needed is a Department of Education run by educators whose concern is the benefit of education for the common good, not for corporate profit.
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This is all part of the evil plot to destroy public schools. They insert neoliberals or other pro charter members in key decision making spots to forward their agenda. Money talks!
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State legislatures can be as destructive to public education as the Obama-Duncan Dept. of Ed for the last 6 years. Stopping Fed interventions in racist/sexist policies of local districts has been a conservative goal of right-wing states rights advocates for decades; these forces opposed the democratic functions of fed policy in prior decades. The problem is the capture of Education Dept. for the NCLB/RTTT bipartisan private war on public schools. Duncan can withdraw now b/c his work for Eli Broad who will finance his lavish retirement once Duncan leaves office, because Duncan’s heavy lifting for Broad and the billionaires is done, completed. Public education is in steep decline because of his work. He has tilted national education policy towards abusive commercial standardized annual testing which ESSA continues along with the 95% mandate for student participation; has installed private charters as “public schools” certified to receive public funding while not accountable to public authorities; has pushed VAM, enabled TFA displacement of professional teachers and teacher education programs with bogus academies and their wunderkind newbie products. These policies are now the property of the 50-state legislatures where crony politicians pushed by ALEC and billionaire funders will take them to the next level. ESSA thus continues the terrible damage wrecking public education for the past 15 years; but this was obvious months ago from the start and should have been fought tooth and nail by all public advocates, especially by the renegade union leaders Randi/Lily who promoted it instead. Critiques of ESSA now only close the barn door after the horses have escaped. With ESSA forced on us full of ominous and unknown potentials, we now need to hold the two renegade union leaders accountable for promoting ESSA and Hillary instead of defending public education by mobilizing their 4 mil members for a tough fight. Voting out Randi/Lily and their clique is the task at hand; forcing Hillary the front runner to finally enunciate an education policy which recognizes and stops the ugly private war on public education is required, or else oppose her candidacy.
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For details on Arne Duncan’s relationship with the Broad Foundation, see “Arne Duncan and the Broad Foundation” at Defend Public Education! http://goo.gl/AQpTJg
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AMEN, Ira.
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Great summary of the evil axis at work to take public education away from the public, and replace them with corporate schools.
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Having worked in school districts most of my working life, I appreciate the sentiment: If they (federal and state departments of education) just provided funding and left us alone to do what we know is right for kids, we would be a lot better off. In some circumstances, e.g., visionary superintendent; well-intentioned, informed, stable school board without external political agendas, maybe that is true. However, that formula does not scale. Can we achieve widespread equity, from Mississippi to Long Island to Los Angeles without a federal role? Historically, gains for social and economic justice have been achieved at the national level.
Maybe the problem is not federal overreach, but reaching for the wrong things.
https://www.washingtonpost.com/news/answer-sheet/wp/2015/01/13/u-s-education-policy-federal-overreach-or-reaching-for-the/
http://www.arthurcamins.com
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“Maybe the problem is not federal overreach, but reaching for the wrong things.”
Exacto.
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Before we take the leap to oppose all federal authority in education, think about who should decide other critical issues: the federal, state or local governments:
Reproductive rights?
Universal health care?
Who votes?
Environmental regulations?
Workplace health and safety?
Right to collective bargaining?
Immigration?
Access to public accommodations?
Unemployment insurance?
Social Security?
Current education policy has made for a strange alliance in opposition to Federal control and rules. Some want to prevent the Feds from imposing poorly constructed and inappropriately used student assessments. However, others want to be free to dismantle democratically governed public schools that are open to all. Still others want the freedom to teach religiously determined accounts of the history of the earth on equal footing with scientific accounts.
We need a fuller discussion about the roles of the federal government, if democracy, equity and social responsibility are our overriding values. That discussion should include but also transcend strategic considerations related to who controls the US Department of Education.
http://www.arthurcamins.com
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We can talk about the authority of the federal and state governments should have all we want. While we are talking, the privateers are buying up support from both the feds and states to advance the destruction of democratic public schools. They want it all, and they are supported by big money! By the way, I read recently that ALEC wants to rewrite the Constitution.
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I don’t know if it’s worse or better now but they really seem to have a horrible relationship with the public schools they’re supposed to be serving. There’s so much discontent and anger “on the ground” and they seem to blithely assume that all comes from “defending the status quo”.
I really think they would do well to examine their role in this breakdown of trust instead of attributing bad motives to the people they’re supposedly “helping”.
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They don’t care about any ill will toward public schools. They want to crush them ASAP.
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I agree with those who have commented that the problem isn’t the Dept of Education but who has been minding the store for all of the last two presidential administrations.
I will never blindly support a goal that has been the wet dream of conservatives and reactionaries for decades. The notion that the DOE needs to be run and staffed solely by read educators is a good one. People like Arne Duncan and his equally execrable replacement have no business overseeing educational policies and practices at any level.
But this leaves open the question of how to keep neoliberals and other servants of Wall Street from looting the hen house. If the last nearly 16 years are any indication, that’s not going to be so easy. However, it beats trying to keep 50 state departments of education from ruining everything. One well-run, sane federal DOE can operate to keep places like Kansas from making “Intelligent Design” the law for science classrooms in an entire state.
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And yet, I’m unaware of even one national media outlet that has asked the question, “When Americans voted for Pres. Obama, was their intent to give him a mandate to privatize public schools?”
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As we return to local control in California, we’d love to have Michael join us…
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Please let’s don’t go here. The USDOE has and can work for good.
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When? As far as my eye can see, there has been nothing but a privatization approach coming out of the USDOE.
What are the chances that the USDOE could be captured by educators that would allow teachers to teach without accountability measures, other than those common sense ones that competent principals and assistant principals would enact regardless of the situation?
Zilch. That’s the chances.
Shut them down…allow the dollars to flow through to the states and strip the USDOE of any grant levying ability and any influence.
My state capitol is a whole lot closer than D.C.. I’d much rather fight my idiot Governor than Arne Duncan and King.
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To ME,
You are right. You will have more chance fighting your “idiot governor” than fighting the federal government. You might defeat him.
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Egregious gerrymandering and big money, makes it difficult to defeat, at the state level, which is where the hostile edicts, spring from. But, without the fed., at least Ohio, combined with other state, taxpayers, wouldn’t be footing a $71 million dollar inducement to privatize.
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I was saying this YEARS ago on this blog.
You don’t feed the monster who is trying to kill you off. You get rid of it.
Stop begging your master for power. The power resides with the people.
The feds have gobbled up that power because you’ve been feeding it.
Teach the U.S. Constitution. Make sure your kids KNOW and UNDERSTAND the 10th Amendment. Have them READ the Federalist and Anti-Federalist papers. Make sure they know and appreciate Federalism.
Look for a presidential candidate who is willing to abolish the US Dept. of Ed. Some are running saying they would do just that if elected.
Big govt. eventually destroys us all.
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I’m not sure what we would be losing if the DOE was dismantled and we returned to a department of Health Education and Welfare or some such iteration. Civil rights protection, separation of church and state concerns do not have to be handled by DOE and they weren’t in the past. Department status has just led to federal overreach.
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The only way to fight this is locally and by tossing this in the face of city and school officials who’ve fallen into the trap.
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“Harvard is taking the government to the cleaners.” That’s a quote from a Boston Globe, 2013 article. “Harvard and MIT thwarted a reform proposal by Obama to slash their government financed research overhead… Harvard got a rate of 69%, as contrasted with the national average of 52%…. In total, the government spends $ 10 bil. that doesn’t go directly to scientific study… the entire system lacks accountability….”
Harvard, with a reported 30% legacy admission rate, should be denied all federal funding, for it’s discriminatory practices. The public does not have equal access to admission, based on merit, making it obvious that federal spending at schools like Harvard should be prohibited.
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The problem appears to be centralization of power in an executive agency. One can’t simply hope for an agency peopled with educators. Once you establish an executive agency with powers that supersede state govt, staffed with unelected folks, you’ve set up a system that has, simply said: too much power over the electorate. In some eras, depending on your political viewpoint, that could be wonderful, in other eras, terrible. It all depends on whose running things– just like a dictatorship!
This is a perennial problem in our constitutional govt, which allows for executive agencies. We’re stuck with the model, but we can tweak it. Perhaps Health, Ed, & Welfare was a better model. Certainly we’ve all noted numerous times that public ed in poor districts could be better delivered if supported by health & welfare services. Perhaps if schools whose funding is supplied mostly by the fed govt were accountable to a Health, Ed, & Welfare govt agency, we might get at least a positive attitude toward the provision of wraparound social services.
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