Government should not run education, whether Federal, or State.

I don't think it would be enough to eliminate the Dept. of Education. I am against public (government financed, government-operated) education, on principle. It does not protect man from force/violence; it is not part of the proper function of government. And also, education teaches thought processes, which the government should definitely not_be in charge of.. This can, and will, and does, and must, eventually lead to government thought control. This is why its abolition is necessary in order to achieve a free society.--
And I'm not interested in any such "states' rights" nonsense as saying it's all right at the state level, as long as we get the Federal government out of it. It is _government_which should not be involved in it, period.

I consider myself a victim pf the public school system. When my kids came along, we made a decision, early on, that we would not inflict (and that's the kindest word I can find) public school on our kids. My kids were home-schooled, then sent to private schools. My son has a degree and makes good money. My daughter in an exceptional engineering student and is planning for grad school and probably med school after that. Meanwhile a friend of mine, who works in and lauds the public school system, has total-loser kids who would be poster children for avoiding the public school system, but I don't think they all actually graduated. You get what you pay for.

My Mother was an English teacher for about 20 years from the 80s to the 90s. She observed the standards being deliberately decreased over time. By the time she was fed up and finally quit, she was not allowed to correct spelling, grammar or punctuation.

Now with the assault weapon called Critical Theory, I read about the Critical Math Theory project, after Bill Gates admitted that Math is Racist on National Television.

Focusing on getting the right answer is racist. Having each student work alone is racist. Requiring students to show their work is racist. They want everyone to work on the exam together and the smart students will pull along the rest and everyone gets an A.

This is a direct assault on Civilization and Competence. It is not compassionate, it is evil destructive resentment, being pushed into the children by the Destructocrats. The deconstructionists, postmodernists, Communists, it's all the same damn thing.

And they think they are doing a compassionate loving thing.

Always good to be ahead of the curve. But many brilliant students get turned off by school and waste their talents.

Ain't THAT the truth!!!

If anything is deemed so essential, then the fedgov is the last entity it should be left to!

12 years to teach us what should only cost us 4-6 years to learn even at only half as many hours in the day!

They steal half our childhood from us, fill our heads with a lot of watered-down half truth, and condition us to be passively useful. American History, World History, Social Studies, even PE was a joke.

Computer Programming? They were always 5 years behind me. English, Math? 2 years behind me.

I refuse to be grateful to my kidnappers for feeding me bologna sandwiches while I was held in their cages.

Public education used to be a good thing. Maybe it would still be if Bill Ayers had been sent to prison like he should have been.

It is interesting to read from the primers given to schoolteachers back in the 1800's. Their certification was rigorous and expansive. They had to read from various poetic authors as well as all the basics of mathematics, geography, spelling, diction, government, etc. And because they were hired and paid in most cases by the parents of the students themselves, they were very vested in real education. And because the parents paid for that education, they were very intolerant of bad behavior at school.

Abstracting both the payment of teachers and the payments BY parents to government entities has created a kind of third-party payer problem in the world of education. Instead of being responsive to students' needs and working with parents to address them, teachers are now beholden to their unions and their school principals. Because parents don't pay directly for the education of their children, they tune out of the education process and remove the single most critical element of education - themselves! And not only the children, but all of society suffers as a result!

Try going to a parent-teacher conference. Most of the public school teachers I've talked with about my children are honest, caring educators, but a majority are lucky to get 25% of the parents to attend and go over their students' progress. (Unsurprisingly, the parents who do attend are generally the parents of the better students!)

Can we fault the public education system? For perverse incentives? Yes. For radical indoctrination? Absolutely. For parental neglect? Nope. For behavioral problems in students? Nope. I'd say there's plenty wrong but not all of it can be blamed on the system.

(Disclaimer: I am a CURRENT parent of nine children currently in the "education" system. I have three in college, two in high school, and four being home schooled by my wife.)

Abolish the teachers unions
Shut down the federal Dept of Education
Issue school vouchers for every schoolchild, including homeschoolers
This isn't that difficult.

Great Idea. Give back the tax money to the parents and sell off the school buildings to private enterprise and let the parents decide which school the kids go to.

Will never happen though, as the educational establishment is way too entrenched in our political structure, and the unions would have a fit and win. Maybe a better solution is just to accept the property taxes as just another tax, reduce the number of kids we have, and send them to private schools that are available. Let the public schools die.

I almost commented on Massachusetts's compulsory education attendance act of 1852, but then I remembered Plato's Republic.
This is an old, old battle.
Parents vs. the State.
Either way, I don't believe for a second that these edicts were designed for the good of the children.

The Federal Government allowed that because the Government wants communism -- unions are communism.

The state are supposed to run its election -- not the Federal Government.

Careful what you are exempting. Military sends their 'selected' folks out to be 'educated' at the 'elite universities' for promotions, and their more common members out to 'public universities' to get educated for promotions. Even the military's own service colleges and universities and acadamies are ALL IN on being woke.

Get rid of the Dept of Education. During the last Government Budget Shutdown, if I recall over 95% of DoE personnel were deemed 'non-essential'... SO... have another Gov Budget Shutdown... and automatically fire anyone deemed 'non essential'. Bingo... they identified themselves for release...why is the Gov hiring 'non-essential' anyway?

My daughter learned more in three years (six / seven and eight grade) in private school than she did in four years of public high school. Her high school was a joke and prepared her poorly for college. Sadly her private school did not offer high school otherwise she would have continued with them.

Abolish 100% pensions for teachers. Give them a COLA raise like the Social Security recipients that they really are. Any teachers on here? Sorry.

WHY we can't is because teachers formed a labor union. I don't know if it should be banned altogether or just reformed back to something decent. My public High School was pretty good, on average. I got the basics in math, science and literature, no garbage. They had wood, metal and plastic shop too. That's all gone now. Can we just eliminate the Department of Education?

abolishing the teachers unions would be a good first move

Thank you. I think it was a big mistake on Jefferson's part, for one thing, to start the University of Va. He thought that an educated citizenry would be a good thing. But that does not mean that we should have an Establishment of education any more than we should have an Established Church.

Didn't mean to have that question put on the screen more than once. Accident. I'm not a computer expert.

Great idea. Too bad we didn't do it about 30 years ago when the schools were taken over.