DeSantis: Time for Department of Education to Go

Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis applauded President Donald Trump's plans to eliminate the U.S. Department of Education, saying Wednesday that doing so will put "American excellence at the forefront of education policy" while eliminating a bureaucracy that stifles success.

"Abolishing the department and reinvigorating state control of education would enable states like Florida to serve better the needs of students, parents, and teachers," DeSantis, a Republican, wrote in The Wall Street Journal, touting the successes in his state coming from allowing more local control in education.

The governor noted that in Florida, his administration has pushed for student-focused and parent-friendly policies in education, taking on "bureaucratic overhang" from the Obama and Biden administrations.

"We abolished Common Core, which had been pushed by the Obama administration, because it didn't work for our students," DeSantis said. "Florida replaced it with high-quality, content-rich standards, Florida's Benchmarks for Excellent Student Thinking, or BEST, which outline the state's expectations at each grade level."

The governor added that in Florida, the state has ended "high-stakes" examinations, shifting the model to progress testing, resulting in significant year-over-year improvements.

The state has also, following action from conservative reformers, enacted universal school choice, which has eliminated financial responsibility restrictions and an enrollment camp on school choice scholarships.

As a result, Florida in 2024 had more than a half-million students who used a school choice scholarship that allowed them to participate in homeschooling or private schools, the governor said.

Charter school expansion has also been supported by the DeSantis administration, allowing the schools to enroll more than 400,000 Florida students. The governor said the population of students in the charter schools are low-income but still performs above peers in traditional districts.

"Abolishing the U.S. Department of Education is a necessary step to unleash states to reach their full potential and copy the successful Florida model," he concluded. "President Trump will demonstrate leadership by following through on a four-decade-old Republican campaign promise. Then the states can get to work — and the prospects for student achievement will brighten."

The basics: at least in the Western United States, the establishment of schools was very locals-driven, with the parents in the community building the schoolhouses, and paying the salary of the teacher (later teachers) educating their children.

The parents directed the curriculum, with helpful information from East Coast and European input.

2 posted on 03/19/2025 4:45:11 PM PDT by asinclair (It's too bad there will never be a RICO indictment of the DNC.)

3 posted on 03/19/2025 5:32:06 PM PDT by Rummyfan ( In any war between the civilized man and the savage, support the civilized man.)

4 posted on 03/19/2025 7:10:21 PM PDT by TBP (Decent people cannot fathom the amoral cruelty of the Democrat cult.)

If I were President, I would appoint someone from Hillsdale to be the Secretary of Education. We understand what a cancer DOE is and have a record of fighting them.

5 posted on 03/19/2025 7:12:13 PM PDT by TBP (Decent people cannot fathom the amoral cruelty of the Democrat cult.)

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