Cal Thomas: Education then and now

MYRNA BROWN, HOST: Today is Thursday, March 27th. Good morning! This is The World and Everything in It from listener-supported WORLD Radio. I’m Myrna Brown.

MARY REICHARD, HOST: And I’m Mary Reichard.

Americans managed to get a good basic education Before the Department of Education existed. Some people will ask, why do we need a federal agency at all?

President Trump is dismantling it, but it’s going to take more than that. Here’s WORLD commentator Cal Thomas.

CAL THOMAS: How did I, my parents, grandparents, and ancestors going back to the founding of the nation manage to get a decent education before Jimmy Carter created the federal Department of Education?

Quite well, thank you.

I went to a public school where the basics were taught—math, reading, U.S. history and science without a political agenda. And I graduated from college without help from the government. I paid back my student loan—small by today’s standards. Tuition was cheaper then. Partly because the government wasn’t involved in education to the extent it is today.

President Trump's stated goal of eliminating the Department of Education…or D-O-E…has begun. His executive orders downsized the bureaucratic population and federal grants. But he’ll need Congress to approve its complete demolition.

The failure of the D-O-E to improve test scores in what was once considered the basics is well known, but it bears repeating. Federal spending on K through 12 public schools has tripled just in the last two decades. At the same time, proficiency in reading and math declined. If tumultuous meetings at school boards across the country are any indication, parents are increasingly fed-up.

According to a new Gallup poll, the percentage of adults who report being dissatisfied with public education has steadily increased from 62 percent in 2019 to 73 percent today.

Just how desperate the establishment is to preserve this failing education system can be seen in a bill under consideration by the Illinois legislature. If passed, it would severely harm the growing home-school movement. The bill would require home-school families to submit forms each year to their local public school that include names, birth dates, grade levels and home addresses of their children. Families who fail to submit the forms would be subject to criminal truancy penalties. Never mind that fewer than one in three Chicago public school students can read at grade level.

According to the Education Data Initiative, federal, state, and local governments provide nearly $880 billion dollars, or $17,700 dollars per pupil to fund K-12 public education. Clearly the return on this investment is not advancing education achievement.

A Wall Street Journal editorial doesn't let Republicans off the hook when it comes to education misspending at all levels. It says: "Republicans in recent decades have helped Democrats expand the Education bureaucracy and balance sheet. Its $1.6 trillion dollars in student debt would make it the fifth largest U.S. bank. The (DOE) doles out $270 billion a year, which it can use to promote a president's agenda and please parochial interests in Congress."

That last part is where much of the challenge lies when it comes to reform. Political agendas. Not only in the DOE, but in so many other programs and legislation where members vote according to their own interests, not the general welfare.

Whatever good the DOE might do can be rolled into other government agencies. Let’s lease its current building to private companies and help reduce the national debt.

I was not an "A" student in my public schools, but the quality of education I received prompted me later in life to pursue knowledge in history and other subjects.

When Ronald Reagan was running for president in 1980, he told a PBS interview the federal government had "usurped" education and had proven to be “incapable of operating (it)."

No one could have said it better.

I’m Cal Thomas.

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