Posted on 02/20/2025 6:54:04 AM PST by MtnClimber
In the more than four decades since the Department of Education was created in 1979, it has spent literally TRILLIONS of dollars, presumably to make America’s youth smarter and more competitive.
But what’s been the result?
Well, just take a look at the National Center for Education Statistics’ (NCES) long-term reading and mathematics assessments for 13-year-old students.
In 1980— the Department of Education’s first year operating— reading scores averaged 258. The most recent data, from 2023, shows scores average 256. So test scores declined.
And it’s even worse among the lower-level students; the bottom 10% had an even steeper decline, from a score of 208 to 202.
So despite trillions in spending, the actual performance of students has fallen according to the Department’s own metrics. That’s a pretty abysmal result for an organization whose mission is to “improve the quality of education”.
Let’s also look at university tuition: back in the mid-1960s, the average annual cost of tuition and fees at private four-year institutions was approximately $1,000, according to the National Center for Education statistics. That’s roughly $9,800 today after adjusting for inflation.
Around the same time, the federal government began handing out financial aid for college— a function that was taken over by the Department of Education in 1979.
So, again, you’d think that the Department would have been successful in keeping higher education cheap. Yet instead, the average cost today has ballooned to $35,000— over 3x higher even when adjusted for inflation.
So in short, the Department of Education has spent trillions of dollars only to see test scores decline and university tuition become unaffordable.
Meanwhile other developed nations have seen the opposite trend: their students’ performance has improved and even eclipsed that of US students, and their costs for university education are still reasonable.
It’s hard to make up this level of incompetence. No wonder there’s a growing movement to shut down the Department.
But standing in opposition is Randi Weingarten, the President of the American Federation of Teachers (AFT), i.e. the largest and most powerful teachers’ union in the country.
Weingarten has been a top union executive for nearly three decades, since 1997 when she was just 29 years old. And you may have heard of her: she was Queen of the Lockdowns during the pandemic— easily one of the loudest voices insisting that schools remain closed.
Children fell far behind in their studies as a result and many may never recover scholastically.
But even excluding the pandemic, during Weingarten’s tenure, student test scores have declined by an average 3 points in reading, and 5 points in math. So if Weingarten’s mission is to help the children, she’s done a terrible job.
But, hey, let’s forget about the children. Weingarten certainly has. After all, her job as a union boss is to serve teachers, not students. But even at that she’s been horrible.
Since 1996, the year before Weingarten became a major union executive, average weekly wages of public school teachers have increased by a mere $29 when adjusted for inflation.
Yet over the same period, inflation-adjusted weekly wages of other college graduates rose by $445, according to the Economic Policy Institute.
This is known as the “teacher pay penalty”, i.e. the average amount that comparable college graduates in other fields earn in excess to an average teacher salary. And under Weingarten’s tenure, this teacher pay penalty rose to a record high.
In other words, during Randi Weingarten’s 30+ years at the helm of America’s biggest teachers’ unions, her members are worse off. Students are worse off.
Who exactly is better off?
Well, Randi Weingarten is definitely better off. She rakes in over $500,000 per year in compensation, plus (despite not being a government employee) she is entitled to a fat pension courtesy of the taxpayer.
She’s also one of the most powerful people in politics, at least on the Left; Joe Biden and Kamala Harris would always make time for Randi Weingarten because she represents a massive voting block. No Leftist in Congress or the White House would refuse her call.
The teachers unions have incredible political clout and make or break state and local elections all the time; Chicago is a prime example of this rot.
So Weingarten has become wealthy and powerful, yet students and teachers are worse off. Meanwhile the Department of Education has become a bloated bureaucracy burning $80+ billion per year with absolutely nothing positive to show for it....SNIP
Watch leftist judges stop the elimination of the Dept. of Education. I hope most voters support the shutdown.
bttt
I know and their wacky Pee Wee Herman and Beetlejuice antics are killing us. We’re laughing ourselves to death. You clowns on the left need to relook your “core values”. You guys are more alien than the illegal aliens. Too much Star Wars and Star Trek.
DOE is a downer......$trillions of tax dollars were spent, but according to their own metrics the actual performance of students has fallen to new lows........an abysmal result for an organization whose mission is said to be to “improve the quality of education”.
Well, at least Americans gave them the option of going down easy. It’s up to them which way they want to go.
Well, we’re FIRST in the world in what we SPEND on each student - and just about last in the world among first world countries in ‘how educated’ the kids are...
Seems to me, given the benchmark statistics showing the money spent was not effective, the ineffective organization needs to go ASAP.
The DOE is the Liberals’ sacred cow.
Some of the meanest and MOST positively rabid union types you will EVER meet are Teachers
There is a bunch of the most completely entitled, pompous and unscrupulous jerks on earth
“It’s hard to make up this level of incompetence.”
Mr. Hickman, maybe you are just trying to be polite, but it is most assuredly NOT incompetence. It’s nothing but a massive power grab by DC, the creation of new methods of graft to siphon off billions of dollars from citizens, and the desire to dumb down Americans.
It was absolutely INTENTIONAL. It proves yet again the malevolence and power hunger of FedGov.
It’s a sinking ship. This is not a fight it is screaming banshees flailing about
Look at Tom hanks, Margaret Brennan and the eu
They’re all just lashing out with unintelligible arguments
Pompous is the best description.
The Democrats are waging a war against reality and common sense. They can't win but they can cut their losses if they stop fighting.
Glad to see MAGA Republicans rejoicing over Trump’s onslaught of executive orders, but executive orders can be redone by the next executive. Republicans need to focus on backing them up with legislation, vote fraud, and planning to win the next election.
To all the idiots that bought into senile Joe’s $359B Ukraine fairy tale:
you got fooled by corrupt demented old man Biden...........
Biden and his crime family got filthy rich off of
billion dollar bundles of tax dollars to nowhere.
One of the main problems is that parents are blackmailed by teacher unions. Pay us or we won’t teach. Since it is unlikely that public school unions will be kicked out of public schools, school choice is the only answer. Defund public schools. We have to burn the village to save it.
Department of Education was created in 1979
Good old boy Jimmy Carter opened the cash till for donors.
Look for the union label
“So if Weingarten’s mission is to help the children, she’s done a terrible job.”
That’s not her mission. Her mission is to help the union. The kids can hang for all she cares.
L
Yup-and some more than others
The head of the teacher’s union said exactly that years ago. That they are not in place for the children. They support teachers and that’s it.
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