Mike Rounds submitted bill that needs supermajority to pass, unlikely even in GOP-controlled Senate next year
Summary
Senator Mike Rounds (R-SD) introduced the Returning Education to Our States Act, aiming to abolish the U.S. Department of Education, a long-time Republican goal aligned with Trump’s agenda.
The bill proposes redistributing the department’s $200 billion budget and responsibilities to other federal agencies and states, such as shifting federal student loans to the Treasury.
Critics warn this could undermine protections for students with disabilities and marginalized groups.
While the bill faces significant political hurdles, it reflects broader GOP efforts to reduce federal influence over education policy.
Republicans are, in fact, fucking you. Because all you do is complain online like all the other democrats.
We lost to an orange rapist criminal because losers like you don't protest with guns, and just finger waggle until the cops break it up.
Grow some balls like the Black Panther party and buy a fucking gun and protest peacefully or continue arguing from your basement while Republicans gut our programs that help the disenfranchised without consequences.
Regarding #1, blue states don't receive nearly as much in financial aid for schools as red states. So abolishing the DOE will reduce the tax burden on citizens living in blue states, at the expense of schools in red states.
Regarding #2, without the DOE compiling this information, it will be up to schools themselves and private research organizations. Badly-performing, severely under-funded schools in red states will, of course, not be able to. Not that they would want to anyway, because without federal assistance, these schools will be in a state of collapse.
Regarding #3, blue states will just focus attention on key educational issues for themselves, while red states focus on fixing their problems by getting bibles into classrooms.
Regarding #4, red states will rapidly descend into systematic discrimination again.
End result: No one will want to hire "graduates" from red states.
This is a self-own of astonishing proportions. The blue states that don't heavily depend on the DOE will manage, while the educational infrastructure in the red states completely falls apart. And businesses in need of skilled employees who can, y'know, read will recruit primarily in blue states.
And the leopards will roam freely through the streets of MAGA-America, feasting on faces in unprecedented numbers.
As a teacher, I have a really strong aversion to framing this as a simple battle between states.
What you're talking about may well come to pass, but in reality what it means is that an entire generation of children in poor states -- through no fault of their own, but solely because of the geography of their birth -- will be woefully undereducated and therefore not competitive in the university admissions process or the job market.
Whatever face-feasting-leopard karma we think the adults who voted for Republicans might deserve, their children should have the right to a proper education rather than be saddled with a legacy of poverty and ignorance. And in your scenario it's apparently going to be up to the blue states to care enough about these kids to help ensure their rights.
We gave power to someone who has explicitly stated that he wants to be a dictator. We don't have political power anymore, and we never will again. It's not about relishing in failure, it's about accepting reality.
Good luck in either the revolution or the collapse, I don't think we have more than a decade until then.
Believe me, I'm not happy about this. It's a very fatalistic view of times to come. I just don't see how we stop it at this point. The people voted for this.
Like the other commenter said, they don’t care about their populous except to remain uneducated and easily controllable, solidifying their conservative control. They’ll bribe the highly educated to come in and lead their industries. Look at any third world country, it’s not their ‘poors’ leading industries, it’s global or foreign experts helping them scrape every drop of wealth from their local communities and environment.
...abolishing the DOE will reduce the tax burden on citizens living in blue states...
There's no such thing as a "federal education funding tax" applied to each state to collectively fund education across the whole country.
The IRS will collect the same federal tax that it always has, but Republicans will funnel the former federal public education money to their pet projects: "crisis pregnancy centers," the military, more tax cuts for billionaires, vouchers for discriminatory private schools, etc.
Therefore the Blue states will get even less federal funding in return for the federal taxes that their economies generate, but by no means will their federal tax burden go down.
These people are just such pieces of shit. They truly want to destroy this country and give a decisive lead to the likes of China.
Letting states like Texas run rampant with teaching total bullshit like creationism without any restraint whatsoever is going to further down this country and we might as well cede all advances to other countries.
10 mins later: Mississippi is introducing a mandated co-op middle and high school. Where students only need to be in class 2 days a week and get hands on experience in desirable fields such as farming/agriculture. You just have to work 2 days a week to make sure you get your credits to get to the next grade!
Don't read up on "no child left behind" then, it's been a huge reason a ton of kids are basically illiterate. Our dept of education doesn't need to be abolished, it needs to be properly funded, so more schools can be built and teachers can be paid more with smaller class sizes.
Well TBH there needs to be more classes on basic skills.. I mean knowing about history is nice, but I would have appreciated more classes on wood working, plumbing, tax preparation, and basic vehicle maintenance.
“The federal Department of Education has never educated a single student, and it’s long past time to end this bureaucratic department that causes more harm than good,” Rounds said
They re-elected the guy who gave the department of education to a member of the Amway (prolific pyramid scheme) family, so honestly I’m not going to say no, but the rich have clearly started tossing industrial excavation tools into the hole we find ourselves in.
At first I thought, "ok they've got their mind made up no matter what, nothing can convince them" Then I realized it meant they were enjoying marginalized students being at a bigger disadvantage. Clever panel.
Why do some people think that smart immigrants would want to come to the US if the general population is hard to deal with? What part of quality of life do they not understand?
Okay, let’s take some prosaic examples.
— H1-B visa man goes to a restaurant. Restaurant staff are racists, QOL degrades, H1-B visa man rethinks staying long term in the U.S.
— H1-B visa man enrolls children in private school. Private school staff is religious fundies, and education at a public level would be cheaper and better in another country. QOL degrades, H1-B visa man decides to move from the U.S.
For most skilled immigrants the calculus is based around money and what they get out of it, you shouldn’t expect there’s any intrinsic worth to staying in the U.S. if standards are shit and qualify of life degrades.
So in simple terms, you’ll have dumber people on average in house and smarter people on average in other countries.
Hell, who is going to want to come study in the US on a visa if we have mass deportations going on? It’s a pretty safe bet that many of those visa holders will get stopped and challenged multiple times by roaming gangs of thugs looking for illegal immigrants to haul away. And it’s also a pretty safe bet that some of them will simply claim the visas are fake or otherwise invalid and make those students lives miserable as they try to sort things out.
And we know Trump knows this, as he was recorded years before stating the economy does better under Democrats....
Also remember his first attempt running for President was in 2000, when he said his running mate was going to be Oprah Winfrey. He held events in California, Florida, and Minnesota before dropping out. I believe he talked about 1 or 2 other presidential runs as well, but never had his ducks in a row. So it was about his 4th time attempting to figure it out in 2016, 5th 2020 and now his 6th time running in 2024.
well, duh. it's the natural progression of the gops war on education theyve been waging since the 60s. turns out it's way easier to get people to vote for you if you master propaganda and refuse to teach people critical thought.
They done great job too. Not only does my mega family now believe that moon landing was faked, but that the earth is flat. Seriously they are getting dumber by the second. All based on where they get their information.
I know it has an potential to cause great harm, but maybe we should get back to intelligence (or even basic reality) tests, and then weight votes proportional to the score.
Just some agree/disagree statements...
The earth is shaped more like a sphere than a disc.
The human beings have never landed on the moon.
The 2020 general election was fair, and without meaningful fraud.
The efficacy of vaccines are well documented, going back over 100 years.
America has a long history of trying to figure out how to make the votes of certain groups fractional of "true" Americans, the whole 3/5ths compromise and all that.
I don't think we should be trying to introduce modern day versions of that. I'd much rather see voting day be made a federal holiday, and voting become mandatory.
Trump (and Republicans) love the poorly educated. This is all part of their plan to keep people stupid so they're easily manipulated, thus keeping the GOP in power.
Just keep going with that logic and defunding every public service and let them separate every state until they all become 50 small autonomous countries.
I've seen GOP Voters on a local news app talking about how they can't wait to see what happens when "California and New York stop asking other states and Big Daddy Government for hand outs!"
And I had to sit down and say "Oh my sweet summer child"
California is the 5th Largest and Most Powerful Economy in the world lol
Man why are we fantasizing about this. What’s the reddest state you can think of, Texas? 42% blue. Florida? 43%. Even in ridiculous places like North Dakota, 1/3 of the people voted blue. What happens to them when blue states form their little utopia?
It's been a fierce debate and position held by some since before the US was even officially anything.
The people who want a less federal power also often forget that the US has, until now, been largely blessed by not having to deal with an outside enemy state on their own same soil for prolonged time. Loose control could mean that becomes a real and actual problem.
I don't know the guy in question, but the more likely conservative mindset is "why bother educating the unwashed masses? It's a waste of resources when we could instead keep them ignorant, under our thumbs, and working in our factories for next to nothing. We'll just make sure that education is available for people who can pay for it (us)."
It provides clear and protected guidelines which allow a kid with physical disabilities like being born missing 8 fingers to be allowed something like a tablet to write out essays through dictation rather than be forced to try keep up with children without such challenges in writing said essays with pen and paper when their ability to come up with an answer has nothing to do with their ability to wiggle a writing instrument upon the surface of card stock.
IEP ensure that all children receive a free and appropriate public education in the least restricted way possible. Unless you want kids with special needs just shoved in a special education classroom until their 18, they are absolutely necessary.
As a parent of a child with special needs, all of this scares the crap out of me. The second the department of education is gone so will the enforcement of the IDEA act. And that is the only thing keeping states like the one I live in from providing these services. It is already hard enough to get schools to do what they are supposed to. I've had to threaten a lawsuit against ours, and it's one of the better school districts.
The second they don't have to provide for these kids they will shove them in the deepest darkest hole and leave them there until they age out.