“We all know that teachers, parents, local school boards, and state Departments of Education know what’s best for their students, not bureaucrats in Washington,” US Sen. Mike Rounds recently noted. That idea is the driving force behind the movement to dismantle the US Department of Education. The truth is, the DOE inhibits states and local school boards from enacting policies that will best serve students in their area and abide by parents’ wishes.

Although President Trump signed an executive order last month directing US Education Secretary Linda McMahon to dismantle the department and “return education authority to the states,” it will take an act of Congress, which originally established the department 46 years ago, to fully eliminate the DOE.

“Our Nation’s bright future relies on empowered families, engaged communities, and excellent educational opportunities for every child,” the March 20 Order reads. “Unfortunately, the experiment of controlling American education through Federal programs and dollars — and the unaccountable bureaucracy those programs and dollars support — has plainly failed our children, our teachers, and our families.”

Trump’s Order notes that taxpayers spent approximately $200 billion to fund the DOE during the pandemic on top of the more than $60 billion allocated annually to the department. It further delineates that although the DOE “does not educate anyone,” it employs over 80 public relations staffers who cost taxpayers more than $10 million per year.

“Closing the Department of Education would provide children and their families the opportunity to escape a system that is failing them,” the Order states. “Today, American reading and math scores are near historical lows. This year’s National Assessment of Educational Progress showed that 70 percent of 8th graders were below proficient in reading, and 72 percent were below proficient in math. The Federal education bureaucracy is not working.”

It’s time to change the landscape of American education and return educational authority to the states. That’s why Sen. Rounds reintroduced a bill in Congress to officially eliminate the DOE and move “all critical federal programs” to other departments. Rounds estimated that dismantling the department would save the federal government around $2.2 billion annually.

Rounds’ legislation would:

• Eliminate the requirement for schools to “administer standardized assessments or track performance for identifying struggling schools.” Rounds explained that this would grant schools “more flexibility in assessment and school improvement strategies.”
• No longer require schools to “comply with complex Title I funding regulations,” which supplement state and local funding for “low-achieving children, especially in high-poverty schools.” In order to simplify financial management, schools would also be relieved from “maintenance of effort standards or provide equitable services for private school students.”
• Grant schools “more autonomy to set teacher certification standards and professional development plans, reducing federal oversight and allowing for tailored approaches to educator qualifications,” Rounds added.

Returning educational authority to the state would empower South Dakota to make further progress on issues like school choice, parental rights, and protecting children from radical transgender ideology.

South Dakota Secretary of Education Dr. Joseph Graves spoke at Family Voice’s 2024 Stand Dinner to share about how his department is reshaping our state’s educational system and departing from national standards of instruction to more effectively teach social studies, phonics, and instill values of resilience in our students. This is a perfect example of why authority must be returned to the states. Local control of education will lead to more tailored, effective education strategies and produce better results.

America is currently ranked 13th in the world in education. Taxpayers have poured hundreds of billions of dollars into a department that has produced disastrous results for our nation. Federal control of education is clearly a failed experiment. Our kids deserve better. It’s time for change.