Congratulations to Betsy DeVos, Now Let's Abolish Her Department
Betsy DeVos was confirmed as the secretary of the Department of Education by the narrowest vote possible – with Vice President Mike Pence breaking the 50-50 tie in the U.S. Senate. Now what?
DeVos has fought the good fight for years to improve the quality of children’s education via the expansion of school choice. Of course, that earned the wrath of teachers’ unions, the public school machine, and their political minions (i.e., mainly, the Democratic Party). As was clear from the attacks on DeVos, the machine demands that any education secretary protect public schools, teachers and bureaucrats.
What about the students? Well, all that’s needed is to throw more money at the bureaucrats, teachers and public schools, and the students will somehow do just great. Yeah, right.
In reality, rewarding failure with more money and feeding increased resources to, in effect, a government monopoly is a recipe for ineptness, not excellence. And that’s exactly what Americans have received for their massive “investment” of federal, state and local tax dollars in government schools. Indeed, pretty much any measure of student performance shows U.S. students falling short. For example, according to the 2015 Program for International Student Assessment study, U.S. students ranked below average internationally in math, and just average in reading and science.
The business community sees the poor results first hand, but often gets the remedy dead wrong. Business leaders recognize that far too many Americans lack some of the most basic skills, not to mention advanced abilities, needed for both individuals and businesses to compete and excel. However, even as their firms compete in the marketplace to better serve customers, many of these same business executives believe that government schools shielded from competition can be fixed by handing them even more money.
For example, back in 1993, Walter Annenberg forked over $500 million for public schools. Mark Zuckerberg dropped $100 million on public schools in Newark, New Jersey, in 2010, and that was followed up by a pledge in 2015 to drop another $20 million on high-speed Internet connections for public schools. For good measure, the Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation has spent hundreds of millions of dollars trying to improve the public education system. And keep in mind that, according to the National Center for Education Statistics, more than $606 billion was spent on public primary and secondary education in this nation in 2012-13.
The results, predictably, have been woeful.
It should be obvious especially to the business community that tossing money at public schools is just a tragic waste of resources. No incentive exists in government schooling to innovate, improve, enhance productivity, serve customers over special interests, and/or use dollars efficiently.
True, universal school choice is needed, whereby the customers – that is, parents and students – can choose the best education for their children in a vibrant, innovation market cut loose from costly, thoughtless, excessive government regulations and intrusions, with choices including religious schools, private, secular institutions, home schooling, online schools, or local public schools.
So, after the DeVos battle, and seeing taxpayer and private money wasted in public schools, again, what now?
First, let’s congratulate Betsy DeVos on surviving the confirmation process, and urge her to do whatever she can in that job to further advance her critical work on educational choice.
Second, but even as we encourage Secretary DeVos, it’s time to recognize that the U.S. Department of Education is nothing more than a sop to the public school machine. It’s time for this department, created in 1980, to be shut down. In fact, U.S. Rep. Thomas Massie, along with assorted co-sponsors, have introduced a bill (H.R. 899) to abolish the Department of Education by the end of 2018. Massie summed the issue up quite nicely, “Unelected bureaucrats in Washington, D.C. should not be in charge of our children’s intellectual and moral development. States and local communities are best positioned to shape curricula that meet the needs of their students. Schools should be accountable. Parents have the right to choose the most appropriate educational opportunity for their children, including home school, public school, or private school.”
Third, it’s time for business leaders to recognize that feeding a government monopoly is not the answer to solving our education problems. CEOs and entrepreneurs across industries need to put their words and dollars behind efforts to expand school choice for all students. That means supporting private voucher efforts with their dollars, and backing efforts in the states with their influence and dollars to establish choice programs like vouchers, tax credits and education savings accounts.
Fourth, and finally, elected officials need to stop pandering to and taking marching orders from the public school political machine, and instead get focused on how best to advance quality education for children.
