US department of education should be abolished

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Discussing the topic of education Thomas Jefferson asserted “I know of no safe depository of the ultimate powers of the society but the people themselves; and if we think them not enlightened enough to exercise their control with a wholesome discretion, the remedy is not to take it from them but to inform their discretion.” (Encyclopaedia Britannica, 1976) . Educating future American generations was a discussion topic during the nation’s founding. President Jefferson, like many founders, politicians and scholars stressed the importance of educating the people. Knowledge was an important factor in a healthy Republic. Recent politicians have taken a stance against the Department of Education. Considering the importance of education, why would anyone take a stance against education? The current stance is not against education but instead it is against the Department of Education. The founders did not envision education controlled by the federal government; instead they proclaimed support for state governed education with federal assistance. More than two hundred years passed without a U.S. Department of Education, because people feared government meddling in education. Those fears are coming to fruition. Today the U.S. Department of Education is a Bureaucratic nightmare. The department continues to grow in both size and expense with little progress shown. The American people fear that their children will not receive a proper education without the department. This fear is propagated by the department itself. After all they have to make a living. At least two different federal education plans developed since the department started operations. Therefore, The Department of Education should be abolished because the American people did no... ... middle of paper ... ...as tasked in 1981 to collect information and survey the status of education. The commission was to prepare a report for the Secretary of Education and the President within 18 months. Studies had shown that American students were scoring lower on tests than their counterparts in other nations including, Japan, South Korea and Germany (The National Commission of Excellence in Education, 1983). This fear was the driving force behind the commissioning. The commission produced A Nation at Risk: The Imperative for Educational Reform in April 1983 meeting the prescribed deadline. The commission declared that American education had been backsliding since the Soviets launched Sputnik. Illiteracy had risen and average test scores declined during that time period. American industry was losing ground to Japan in Automobiles, South Korea in Steel and Germany in machine tools.

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