Episode 598 Show Notes- Should Congress Eliminate the Department of Education?

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Episode Description

The Department of Education has had over 40 years to prove its worth, yet student achievement continues to decline while bureaucracy grows. In this episode of The P.A.S. Report Podcast, Professor Nick Giordano debunks the fearmongering surrounding its potential elimination and exposes who truly benefits from the status quo. He breaks down how education can be reformed to focus on students, not bureaucrats, and why returning power to parents and local communities is essential. It’s time for a real conversation about fixing our failing education system—because the future of our children depends on it.

Episode Highlights:

• Debunking the fearmongering – What the Department of Education actually does vs. what critics claim.
• Who benefits from the status quo? – The role of teachers’ unions, bureaucrats, and activist agendas.
• Real education reform – How to create a student-focused system that prioritizes learning over politics.

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Show Notes- Should Congress Eliminate the Department of Education?

Timestamps

00:00 The Debate Over the Department of Education
07:44 The Purpose of the Department of Education
20:24 Debunking Myths and Fearmongering About the Department of Education
30:53 Proposed Solutions for Education Reform

 

Welcome to The P.A.S. Report Podcast

[Auto-Generated Transcript]

Hello everyone, and welcome to The P.A.S. Report Podcast. I’m your host, Professor Nick Giordano. Be sure to follow and subscribe to the podcast so you never miss an episode and go to The P.A.S. Report website at pasreport.com to sign up for my newsletter, read the show notes, and share the episode with family and friends.

Should Congress Dismantle the Department of Education

President Trump continues to move with lightening speed to reshape the government and downsize the federal bureaucracy. One of the key areas he is looking to target is the Department of Education. During the campaign, he made his desire to eliminate the Department of Education clear, and don’t forget that for well over a decade, Republicans have routinely called for the Department of Education to be dismantled.

There are reports that President Trump plans to issue an executive order this week regarding education, and President Trump has announced that he will unleash Musk and DOGE on the Education Department next. However, as of this recording, the executive order has not been issued.

To be clear, the President cannot dismantle the Department of Education through an Executive Order. He may be able to pare down some of its operations, but he cannot eliminate it. Only Congress has the power and authority to eliminate Education as a Cabinet-level department.

They can completely eliminate it. They can drop it back down to Office of Education which it was known as prior to it being elevated to a Cabinet-level department or they can eliminate it completely. I’ll get into the differences later.

But like most things the President does or suggests, this has Democrats, the legacy media, teacher’s unions, and several states apoplectic.

Listen to Congresswoman Mad Maxine Waters as she tries to storm the Department of Education headquarters.

Play Clip Congresswoman Maxine Waters

Obviously, I am being hyperbolic when I say she tried to storm the Department of education, but look at how she berated that poor guy who was just doing his job. Here’s something to keep in mind: How you treat other people, particularly ordinary people, reveals a lot about you. I’m just saying. No matter my political beliefs, I treat people with dignity and respect, even if I disagree with them on political issues.

I may call our politicians morons. I may call now-Senator Schiff an imbecile, but when it comes to ordinary people, I would never call them names, and Schiff and other politicians have earned these labels. However, even if I were to speak to them in person, I would still be respectful because that’s how I was raised.

In any event, proponents of the Department of Education argue that its closure will be disastrous. They argue that if we eliminate the Department, we will create a generation of students who can’t read or write.

I have a news flash for these people: we don’t have to wait for the next generation. Students already can’t, and I see it firsthand in my classroom every semester.

Millions of students graduate unable to read, do basic math, or understand how their own government works. That should be the real scandal. You would think that’s where the outrage would be directed.

I want to ask all of you out there, when was the last time you tried to see congresspeople storm the Department of Education for the abysmal student proficiency numbers? Just last week, the National Assessment for Educational Progress released the Nation’s Report Card, and it showed student proficiency levels remain at historic lows. Where is the outrage about that?

I don’t see the Democrats, the media, and the heads of the teacher’s unions expressing outrage at that. Where is the outrage concerning the fact that about 50% of college freshmen will have to take at least one remedial course for content they should have mastered in high school. Or what about companies having to spend approximately $3.1 billion to provide remedial writing training to recent college graduates. Or the fact that 12th-grade textbooks have to be written at the 7^th-9^th grade reading level.

Where’s the outrage over that, especially considering we spend approximately $1.4 trillion per year if we combine federal, state, and local spending on education, yet we have schools that cannot produce a single student proficient in math and reading.

Why don’t we see people like Congresswoman Waters storm the Department of Education over that? And listen, I believe Congresswoman Waters and other lawmakers should be allowed entry because they have oversight over these agencies. Part of the problem is that Congress has ignored using their power of oversight to reign in the bureaucracy and demand better.

Now, I am not sure what exactly they were looking for or expecting to find. This was clearly a photo op. The real outrage should be toward an education system that fails students’ year after year, and leaves students unprepared for the real world, yet the very people responsible for this failure would rather cling to the status quo. Ridiculous.

And that’s what I want to focus on in this episode. I want to talk about why the Department of Education was created, dispel some of the myths about its elimination, and why this is one small step to real reform. We need an education system that works for students, not bureaucrats. And if eliminating the Department of Education is a step toward that goal, we should at least have the conversation. I’ll get to it all, so hang tight, and we will be right back.

Break

The Purpose of the Department of Education

Welcome back to The P.A.S. Report Podcast. In this segment, I briefly want explain what the purpose of the Department of Education was when it was first elevated to Cabinet-level status.

But even before that, we need to look at the statute that created the Department of Education.

Congress and President Jimmy Carter established the Department of Education in 1979. Under Title 20 U.S. Code 3401 and 3402. If you take one minute to read U.S. Code 3401, you would see its authority is limited. You would also see how the Department has long deviated from this authority. Take subsection three, the law recognizes that “parents have the primary responsibility for the education of their children, and States, localities, and private institutions have the primary responsibility for supporting that parental role.”

Today, Democrat lawmakers, union bosses, and many media pundits believe that parents shouldn’t play a role in education. They think the government knows what’s best, but the stats say otherwise don’t they.

Subsection four states that, “the primary public responsibility for education is reserved respectively to the States and the local school systems and other instrumentalities of the States.”

And that’s the way it should be, but we have allowed for the concept of federalism to be eviscerated by the ever growing federal blob, and the Department of Education knows how to usurp state and local control.

Well, let me ask the audience, as federal authority and control has expanded and got more entrenched in the schools, has student performance increased or decreased?

And that’s what this really comes down to. When you take a look at Title 20 U.S. Code 3402, it created the agency mission, and the top mission was to promote student achievement and educational excellence at all levels of education.

Let’s get real for a moment. If the Department of Education’s mission was to promote student achievement and educational excellence, then by every measurable standard, it has been an abject failure. We are, and have been, seeing entire generations of students graduate unprepared for college, the workforce, and basic civic life. Many lack common sense and are void of basic life skills.

So why do so many want to save a failing system? Why do so many refuse to change it? More importantly, who benefits from the status quo?

The answer to all those questions is rather simple. It’s about power, money, and ideological control.

One of the biggest beneficiaries of this broken system is teachers’ unions, and I am not talking about all unions. There are some great unions out there, and in full disclosure, I am an active member of a union. However, we cannot ignore the two biggest education unions.

The National Education Association (NEA) and the American Federation of Teachers (AFT) have amassed enormous political power, and they wield it to protect their own interests, not the interests of students.

These unions rake in hundreds of millions of dollars in dues from teachers, but instead of focusing on classroom success, they pour tens of millions into political activism, almost exclusively supporting Democrat candidates and left-wing causes. In 2022 alone, the NEA spent over $66 million on political campaigns.

I am constantly hearing about how teachers have to shell money out of their own pockets to buy supplies. So I want to challenge every teacher out there that supports the NEA and the AFT. Are you okay that you have to shell out your own money for supplies, yet your union is pouring tens of millions of dollars into political campaigns and leftwing causes.

These are the same unions who fight against merit-based teacher pay, accountability measures, and even policies that would remove bad teachers from the classroom because it’s not about academic achievement. It’s about political clout.

Then you have the bureaucracy itself – the Department of Education. Since the Department’s creation, it has ballooned into a massive federal agency with well over 4,000 employees and a budget of about $80 billion per year for discretionary spending. This is a 200+% increase since the 1990s. Think about that for a minute. A 200+% increase in spending, and yet student proficiency continues to worsen.

Geniuses, obviously it isn’t a money problem, and let’s remember that not a single student is directly taught by a Department of Education employee.

So, what do they do? They write regulations, push mandates, and enforce compliance, but they certainly don’t improve student outcomes.

Federal education funding is a slush fund for pet projects and ideological initiatives. Billions get funneled into consultant contracts, research grants, and compliance enforcement. In 2021, a GAO report found that nearly half of the Education Department’s grant programs were duplicative or ineffective. Yet instead of reforming, they just keep demanding more money.

And let’s look at the consultants because there are no better examples than the DEI activists and the ideological capture of our education system by socialists. Consider how this toxic ideology has infected every level of education.

The Department of Education has become a pipeline for progressive activists to push DEI, CRT, gender ideology, and radical social policies into classrooms. Instead of focusing on reading, writing, arithmetic, and civics students are being bombarded with political activism disguised as education. Case in point: In 2024, the Department of Education funneled $1 billion into “DEI” initiatives while math and reading scores continued to plummet.

Federal bureaucrats push race-based curricula, social justice activism, and gender identity lessons onto schools through funding incentives. Many of those in our federal government aren’t public servants. They are ideologues. Just consider how in the 2024 presidential race, federal employees donated $4.2 million with 84% of those donations going to Vice President Kamala Harris. Hmm, it kind of tells you everything you need to know.

If student success was truly a priority, why are the very people in charge of the education system – and have been for decades – so opposed to real reform? They fight school choice. They oppose transparency and accountability. They promote more spending, bigger budgets, but not better outcomes.

The truth is that the education system doesn’t serve students. It serves unions, bureaucrats, and ideologues who benefit from maintaining the status quo. That’s why they engage in fearmongering about generations of students who will be unable to read and write if the Department of Education is dismantled, but I am going to debunk their claims head-on when we get back from this quick break.

Break

Debunking the Fearmongering – What Happens if We Eliminate the Department of Education

Welcome back to The P.A.S. Report Podcast. Now, we need to take a moment to address the fearmongering. The hysteria. The doomsday proclamations from politicians, teacher’s unions, and media talking heads claim that eliminating the Department of Education will somehow lead to the collapse of American education. Again, I have to provide a news flash: it’s already collapsed.

But I keep hearing the narrative that without the Department of Education, students will be abandoned. Schools will refuse to help children with disabilities. Civil rights protections will vanish overnight. Student loans will disappear. Standards will fall apart, and learning will be destroyed.

It’s all nonsense.

And the people pushing these claims are the very ones who have overseen the steady decline of American education while demanding more money and more federal control.

So let’s break it down.

Myth #1: Eliminating the Department of Education Means No More Protections for Students with Disabilities

You’ve probably heard this argument: Without the DOE, kids with disabilities will be left behind! False.

The Individuals with Disabilities Education Act (IDEA) was passed before the Department of Education even existed, and it remains federal law. The DOE does not “protect” these students—the law does. Even without the department, IDEA would still be in place and enforced, just as it was before 1979.

Same goes for 504 plans, which fall under the Rehabilitation Act of 1973, another law passed before the DOE. Schools are still legally required to accommodate students with disabilities, with or without a massive bureaucracy in Washington.

So no, eliminating the DOE does not eliminate protections for these students. That’s just a scare tactic.

Myth #2: The Department of Education Ensures Civil Rights Protections and Educational Equity

The left claims that without the Department of Education, discrimination would run rampant in schools.

Here’s the reality: The Department of Education has completely distorted civil rights laws to impose radical policies that go well beyond what Congress ever authorized.

It redefined “sex” in Title IX to include gender identity, without congressional approval, and forced schools to comply or risk losing federal funding. It has weaponized Title IX investigations to punish schools and students based on ideological mandates. Most importantly, it has destroyed due process on college campuses where students are guilty until proven innocent. A simple accusation to destroy someone life without having to provide any evidence to substantiate the claim.

And let’s be honest, if the Department of Education was truly ensuring “equal opportunity,” then why are black and Hispanic students still suffering the worst outcomes despite decades of federal intervention?

If actual civil rights violations occur, the Department of Justice is perfectly capable of handling those cases. We don’t need a bloated, politicized Department of Education for that.

Myth #3: The Department of Education Provides Essential Funding That Schools Can’t Live Without

The argument here is that public schools, Title I programs, and Pell Grants would disappear if the Department of Education is eliminated.

But that’s a lie. Federal funding doesn’t just come from the DOE. Title I and special education funding can be block-granted to states. States already control how these funds are used, so why not cut out the middleman? Pell Grants and student aid can be managed through existing federal programs, without needing a massive bureaucracy to oversee them. And let’s not forget, the more federal money schools take, the more strings come attached.

In fact, states and local school districts have become dangerously dependent on federal funds to their own detriment. Instead of being accountable to parents and communities, they answer to Washington DC.

Myth #4: The Department of Education Holds Schools Accountable

This one is almost laughable. “The Department of Education holds schools accountable?”

I spoke about the actual results in the first segment: Math and reading scores are at their lowest levels in decades. Despite spending $1.4 trillion a year on education, many schools can’t produce a single student proficient in math or reading. College students have to take remedial courses.  American companies spend billions a year for things the employees should have learned in college

So can someone on the left explain to me what federal “accountability” they are talking about because the only thing I see is more bureaucracy, worse outcomes.

The Education Department turns a blind eye to failing schools, while it pours billions of our tax dollars and resources into leftist social experiments instead of basic academics. Billions of dollars in grants have been funneled into DEI programs rather than improving core education.

Despite spending billions of our tax dollars to push “STEM initiatives” for over a decade, the number of American students pursuing STEM degrees has stagnated or declined.

In the words of Joe Biden, “C’mon man Give me a Break”

Finally, we have Myth #5: The Department of Education Doesn’t Control What Students Learn

They claim that curriculum decisions are made at the state and local level and that the Education Department doesn’t influence what kids learn.

Again, this is nothing more than a lie. The DOE uses federal funding and grants to pressure states into adopting specific policies and curricula. It has partnered with activist organizations to push gender ideology, race-based policies, and climate change activism into K-12 education.

Even Common Core, which they insist was a “state decision” was forced onto schools because states were threatened with losing federal funding if they didn’t adopt it. It’s nothing more than an extortion racket, and if we tried to pull one-tenth of what the feds do, we would be in prison. And if they truly had no influence over curriculum, then why do we constantly see federal education policies driving state-level changes?

They don’t need to “mandate” it. They control the purse strings, and that’s how they enforce compliance.

I want everyone to think about this:

We have spent over $1 trillion in the last decade, yet student outcomes continue to decline. The education system is more centralized and bureaucratic than ever, yet literacy rates are plummeting. The same politicians and unions screaming about the Department of Education’s importance are the ones who have presided over its failures.

So why should we trust the people who created this mess to fix it? The fact is these people have forfeited their credibility, and they should not be able to dictate education policy.

We don’t need a bloated federal bureaucracy to ensure students get an education. We need real reform. Reform that puts parents back in control, restores local decision-making and focuses on actual learning rather than ideology.

Eliminating the Department of Education isn’t about “destroying” education. It’s about fixing it, and when we get back from this quick break, I want to wrap the episode up with some final thoughts.

Break

Some Solutions for Real Education Reform

Welcome back to The P.A.S. Report Podcast. We’ve exposed the failures of the Department of Education and debunked the fearmongering, but now let’s talk solutions. How do we create an education system that works for students, not bureaucrats?

First, we must save and strengthen public education. I don’t want to see the public school system destroyed. I want to see it fixed. The reality is that the overwhelming majority of students will go through the public school system, and that’s why we need real reform that puts students first.

Second, return control to parents and local communities. Education decisions should be made at the state and local level, not dictated by unelected bureaucrats in Washington. Parents know what’s best for their children, not federal agencies pushing ideological agendas.

Third, school choice is the key to breaking the monopoly that has trapped millions of kids in failing schools. Whether it’s charter schools, private schools, homeschooling, or even another public school, parents should have the power to decide where their child’s education dollars go.

Fourth, prioritize core academics. Schools need to get back to the basics and focus on reading, writing, math, science, and civics, not activism, not DEI mandates, not political indoctrination. If students can’t read at grade level, if they can’t solve basic math problems, then the education system has failed, no excuses. We also need to incorporate behavior, discipline, and manners into curricula. Most people don’t know, but those components were the focus of the public education system when it was first started. It was about developing well-rounded students who would go on to become productive members of society.

Finally, we have to hold schools accountable. If a school consistently fails to teach students, funding should be tied to performance. Reward success, not failure.

We have a choice. We can either continue funding bureaucracy and decline, or we can put students, our children, first. The Department of Education has had over 40 years to prove its worth, and it has failed by every objective metric. It is absurd to think we should continue to pour billions of taxpayer dollars into a failed system. It’s time to put education back in the hands of parents, communities, and educators who actually care about results.

To listen to the full episode, click play above or visit your favorite podcast platform!

Click here to read Professor Giordano’s latest piece at Campus Reform

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