What is wrong with the Dept of Education

It's just another example of Ron Paul taking us back to our nation's pricipals.

How do you expect a handful of people all the way in Washington to be smart enough to tell you exactly how to teach your kids???

In fact it's been proven over and over again that when we have Big Government we have Big Problems. I blame the FBI and the CIA and the rest of the fed for 9/11, just as an example and not because I think they necessarily did it themselves but rather they had strong evidence that it would happen and no one did anything about it because of all the red tape.

Not to mention that most of the other countries of the world leave their teaching creditials out of the hands of their own governments and they're now smarter than we are.

I mean honestly has anyone seen, "Are you smarter than a 5th grader?"

The tenth amendment says that anything not listed in the constitution for the federal government to do is reserved to the states and to the people.
If Americans want a department of education then the legal way is to not ignore the constitution but to amend the constitution to allow the government to do it.
Until the constitution is amended it is illegal.
Ignoring the constitution is what is getting so many people to distrust the government.
It is against the constitution for our government to tap your phone unless an amendment legalizes it.
It is against the constitution to arrest you without a search warrant issued by a judge after he has been presented evidence to show probable cause to justify the search.
It is against the law to have secret courts, secret arrests, secret prisons, and to search your internet use.
To do those and many other things legally there would need to be an amendment authorizing it. Until then these things are illegal for the government to do.

Ya like we need a corrupt government telling our schools how to teach our kids. This is completely insane!!! These crooks do not give a rats ass about education they care about the money they receive and passing a kid that cannot read and is taught lies throughout their 12 years of schooling is nothing less than total brainwashing. Anyone that sees anything good from this bureaucracy is a sheep being led to the slaughter. This agency is shameful at minimum.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-Sudw4ghVe8&feature=related

You already have local and state management of education which is ok (sometimes they do a bad job depends where you live). For every dollar spent federally around 8 cents goes to a school. So the money spent on this is hardly going to the schools. Also, the US department of education as we know it is fairly new. The establishment is as follows:

A previous Department of Education was created in 1867 but soon was demoted to an Office in 1868. Its creation a century later in 1979 was controversial and opposed by many in the Republican Party, who saw the department as an unconstitutional, unnecessary federal bureaucratic intrusion into local affairs.

Below is the opposition to it listed from wikipedia.

President Ronald Reagan promised during the 1980 presidential election to eliminate the Department of Education as a cabinet post,[1] but he was not able to do so with a Democratic House of Representatives. In the 1982 State of the Union Address, he pledged, "The budget plan I submit to you on Feb. 8 will realize major savings by dismantling the Department of Education."[2] Throughout the 1980s, the abolition of the Department of Education was a part of the Republican Party platform, but the administration of President George H. W. Bush declined to implement this idea.

In 1996, the Republican Party made abolition of the Department a cornerstone of their campaign promises, calling it an inappropriate federal intrusion into local, state, and family affairs.[2] The GOP platform read: "The Federal government has no constitutional authority to be involved in school curricula or to control jobs in the market place. This is why we will abolish the Department of Education, end federal meddling in our schools, and promote family choice at all levels of learning."[2][3] During his 1996 presidential run, Senator Bob Dole promised, "We're going to cut out the Department of Education."[3]

In 2000, the Republican Liberty Caucus passed a resolution to abolish the Department of Education.[4]

2008 presidential candidate Ron Paul has campaigned in part on an opposition to the Department.[5]

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/United_States_Department_of_Edu...

Hope this helps.

I just copied this from another post here on Daily Paul. It doesn't specifically answer your question, but it is irrefutable evidence of a system that is no longer working, and in fact is an indoctrination program.

This week the teacher gave my stepdaughter's 6th grade class (in the Ripon, WI school district) an assignment to pair up and do reports on the presidential candidates, Hillary, Obama, McCain, or Huckabee.

Would you believe April's hand went up - "Teacher, you're forgetting a candidate! Ron Paul!" That took a lot for her, because she doesn't thrive on confrontation like her ogre of a stepfather does.

The teacher responded that she wanted two people to work together on a candidate and there was probably nobody else who was familiar with Ron Paul. Then April's best friend in the class chimed in (April has told her all about Ron Paul). "I'll work with April to do a report on Ron Paul!"

So the teacher was backed into a corner and had no choice but to let them do their report on Dr. Paul. Apparently this is a written and oral report.

We copied the issues from ronpaul2008.com and each girl is going to cover 4-5 different ones. I gave April enough slim jims to pass out to the class (mostly "Students for Ron Paul").

The yesterday she got in a conversation with another teacher of hers, and April mentioned that Ron Paul is the only candidate who follows the Constitution. The teacher seemed genuinely interested and gladly took a slim jim.

I'm still waiting to hear that April got suspended from school ;-)

Not in there. If left at the state level, a parent has a chance of getting to the legislators office and effecting change if things get out of hand. Effecting change at the Federal level is a lesson in " mission damn near impossible" we are getting currently taking! With something like your child's education, local control is the best. Remember when "PTA member" struck fear in the heart of a principal? THAT is how government ought to be!

How many children have you heard of that are on anti-depressants, or Ritalin? I believe with all my heart (I have a 3rd grader and K4) that if you correlate the rise of medical drug use in children an the No Child Left Behind Act you would be shocked. This is just one of many things.
The schools are pushing the children to achieve a certain standard for kick backs from the gov't. The parents have no say in the matter. Then every couple of years they raise the test scores and the children have to do even more. This is causing undo stress on children. Then if your child can't sit still for six hours, parents think, well there must be something wrong with my child. So the go and medicate them, it's very sad. Stress is hard on developing minds and bodies, it causes children to be overweight, physically sick because the immune system drops.
I'll tell you, my 3rd grader does not get recess until 2pm! They leave school at 2:30. Half the time they don't get to go because by then the class is acting up or they are behind on their work.

... with the DoE is that it exists.

The DoE does NOT pay for schools. "No Child Left Behind" is a completely UNFUNDED MANDATE. It only regulates them into inferiority and then requires the states to pay to implement the regulations.

The Constitution does not grant ANY authority to the federal govt over education in any way. Education is a local issue...

if you check out either Deliberate Dumbing Down or John Taylor Gatto's books-you will learn that compulsory schooling has always been about social indoctrination/engineering,and NEVER about 'education'.
Hope more individuals will check out these fine authors and their massive research/experience to back them up. Mind blowing.
Nothing to do with 'performance' and 'equal opportunity'. Unless you consider serving our masters and having equal opportunity to do just that. LOL.

http://johntaylorgatto.com/
http://www.deliberatedumbingdown.com/

Both these sites offer free access to books that will help you understand.

This is, and has been for decades, a HUGE issue with Old-School Republicans like Phyllis Schlafly, and for good reason. See http://www.eagleforum.org/psr/1995/psrsep95.html.

By bringing this up, Ron Paul is trying to get the attention of the base of the GOP.

Here are a few reasons why we need to get rid of the DofE. Go to eagleforum.com and search any of these terms.

No Child Left Behind
Goals 2000
See http://www.pdkintl.org/kappan/koha0001.htm
Outcome based Education
School-to-Work
See http://www.eagleforum.org/educate/marc_tucker/
Nationalized curriculum
Health-oriented Education
see http://www.enquirer.com/sexed/

Check out:
None Dare Call it Education by John Stormer
What's Right For All Americans by Ezola Foster (Pat Buchanan's Reform Party running mate 2000)
Paychecks and Power by Donna Hearne
See http://theroadtoemmaus.org/RdLb/21PbAr/Ed/STW03Collisn.htm
Foundations of Liberty
See http://www.foundations-of-liberty.org/other_books.htm

Try reading the Deliberate Dumbing Down of America by Charlotte Iserbyt, a former DOE high level official. It's available for free here: http://www.deliberatedumbingdown.com/MomsPDFs/DDDoA.sml.pdf

It is the "Dept of Indoctrination"

Among all the good reason listed here, we can't afford unconstitutional waste on the federal level. States would do just fine without federal dependency.

From the link given by Liberty4All
http://www.cato.org/pubs/handbook/hb108/hb108-28.pdf

1. The Constitution provides no authority whatsoever for the federal
government to be involved in education. Eliminating the department
on those grounds would help to reestablish the original understanding
of the enumerated powers of the federal government.
2. No matter how brilliantly designed a federal government program
may be, it creates a uniformity among states that is harmful to
creativity and improvement. Getting the federal government out
of the picture would allow states and local governments to create
better ways of addressing education issues and problems.
3. If education were left at the local level, parents would become
more involved in reform efforts. Differences in school effectiveness
among states and communities would be noted, and other
regions would copy the more effective programs and policies.
4. The contest between Congress and state legislatures to demonstrate
who cares more about education would be over, allowingmembers
of Congress to focus on areas and problems for which they have
legitimate responsibility.
5. Since most information about the problems and challenges of
education is present at the local level, Congress simply does not
have the ability to improve learning in school classrooms thousands
of miles away. These problems are best understood and
addressed by local authorities and parents.
6. The inevitable pattern of bureaucracy is to grow bigger and bigger.
The Department of Education should be eliminated now, before
it evolves into an even larger entity consuming more and more
resources that could be better spent by parents themselves.
7. The $47.6 billion spent each year by the Department of Education
could be much better spent if it were simply returned to the
American people in the form of a tax cut. Parents themselves
could then decide how best to spend that money.
8. The Department of Education has a record of waste and abuse.
For example, the department reported losing track of $450 million
during three consecutive General Accounting Office audits.
9. The Department of Education is an expensive failure that has
added paperwork and bureaucracy but little value to the nation’s
classrooms.

It's a tiny, tiny percentage of the overall funding for public schools, yet they have a huge, wasteful, corrupt bureaucracy, and attach all kinds of politically motivated strings to any funding any local schools may get.

The best analogy:

http://rackham.artpassions.net/alice3.html

This question the Dodo could not answer without a great deal of thought, and it sat for a long time with one finger pressed upon its forehead (the position in which you usually see Shakespeare, in the pictures of him), while the rest waited in silence. At last the Dodo said, EVERYBODY has won, and all must have prizes.

But who is to give the prizes? quite a chorus of voices asked.

Why, SHE, of course, said the Dodo, pointing to Alice with one finger; and the whole party at once crowded round her, calling out in a confused way, Prizes! Prizes!

Alice had no idea what to do, and in despair she put her hand in her pocket, and pulled out a box of comfits, (luckily the salt water had not got into it), and handed them round as prizes. There was exactly one a-piece all round.

But she must have a prize herself, you know, said the Mouse.

Of course, the Dodo replied very gravely. What else have you got in your pocket? he went on, turning to Alice.

Only a thimble, said Alice sadly.

Hand it over here, said the Dodo.

Then they all crowded round her once more, while the Dodo solemnly presented the thimble, saying We beg your acceptance of this elegant thimble; and, when it had finished this short speech, they all cheered.

Renewable Wealth - Profitable Green Investing

About 10 years ago I had a front row seat to the School to Work fiasco. In a nutshell the phrase gets hot, pols use it to get elected, fed money (DOE) gets appropriated, pilot states get chosen, local committees are formed with local players and agencies so an 'all-inclusive' grant gets written (total b-s promises), money gets disbursed, and WITHOUT EXCEPTION, the largest expenditure of the grant money is compensation for the locally connected people to implement the grant vision. Every stage I just ran through, if it's not obvious to you, is rife with political payoffs and horse-trading --- just one real life example of how bureaucracies are the enemy of progress. And that local grant's vision? Promised to bring "life-changing" programs to 90,000 students in my region, building a sustainable system to perpetuate the success. Actual results? A few thousand kids got a job shadow day, the money dried up, no system was built, the players hung around and were ultimately hired into the next boondoggle --- the Workforce Investment Act.

Sidebar lesson: one of the great travesties in the last 20 years is this crazy notion that "the fed gov will send block grants to the states where they can implement the solutions that best fit their local cities, towns and communities." BLOCK GRANTS are feedbags, they keep the local poltical players well fed and beholden to higher ups.

-JP

no child left behind act, is horrible, and destroying schools, and the moral of teachers. Bureaucracies only make things more difficult, and waste money. You take away the incentives and motivating factors when you centralize something like education.

It serves to educate 0 kids.

So what is its purpose? IMO it's to employ those (like Bill Bennett and various equally-useless Democrats) who aren't all that employable in the private job market...To these people (who otherwise would not be employed, or would be employed asking "would you like fries with that?") the Department of Education is more important than some government-shrinking promise made by Reagan. To me, it's important to make a variety of obese-government agencies such as this one cease to exist. It's a spending/fiscal-responsibility issue.
JMR

When you centralize something it is easier to control by fewer people. It takes away the ability of parents to put pressure on their community officials for change. i.e. "sorry this is mandated by the Federal Government and we can't do anything about it".

My children didn't begin learning until I pulled them out of public school and started home schooling them. It took us a year to get out of the terrible study habits that public school had created. Now, after 3 yrs of home schooling, my 10 yr old daughter is easily doing Algebra 1/2.

When we first started, we tried the method of the public schools. It was painful, and the kids stagnated. It didn't take me long to figure out that this was not the way to educate someone. You first have to teach them to "learn" before you can fill their head full of facts. I eventually came to the realization that our children are purposely being dumbed down by our centralized education system. After you rid yourself of the public school indoctrination, it will hit you like a ton of bricks.

...before the Department of Education existed, Education in America was among the very best in the world when parents were being parents and they as well as the local levels of government had full control. As years went by the Federal Government decided to take some of that control and started taking charge...after the Federal Government took charge, America's Education began to drop further from the "among the very best in the world" So, then the Federal Government thought, "well, we better do something about our Education system, let's double the size of the Department of Education, we know better than the educators and parents on what and how to teach those pesky brats" So, now we have a Super Department of Education and we are still continually on the slide going down when compared to the rest of the world. Now their are countless numbers of 3rd world nations who are better educated than us "Ignorant" Americans. Bottom Line: The Federal Government ruins practically all they try to control.

The same goes for Healthcare. Before we had all this Federal Government interference and regulations in Healthcare, our Healthcare System (many years ago) was again "among the best in the world" Government got involved and we have been spiraling downward since then. The Government needs to stick to one thing and that is to Protect it's Citizens as well as Secure our Borders.

The Federal Government, if you give them too much to focus on they screw it all up. Let's keep it simple and have the Federal Government focus on one thing. A Strong National DEFENSE. Secure our Borders. That's it. Vote for Ron Paul 2008!