How to reduce the size of Government: the Department of Education

In an ongoing series, the CATO Institute has gone through the Federal Government and taken stock of the different departments and what they do for the citizens.  They then produced case by case ways to reduce the size and cost of each department to prove that it is possible to reduce the size of government.

They offer such novel ideas as free market solutions, private industry and State rights.  These ideas are foreign to the average left leaning liberal out there because it would remove power from the Central Government.  What would we do if the Government was not there to take care of us?  Supply our whims with the comfort of Nanny protection.  We might actually create (return) to the great country that was fought for and formed back in the Time of our Fathers.

When will we come to understand that caring for people does not need to make them dependant.  Helping people does not mean that they should become slaves of the State, voting blocks of needy zombies waiting for their next fix from the dealer that is the Federal Government.

Please, go, seek and find simple solutions to what has become the biggest problem our country faces.


Department of Education

from CATO:

"The Department of Education operates a range of subsidy programs for elementary and secondary schools. That aid is matched by rising federal regulatory control over the schools, but federal intervention has not generally lifted academic achievement. The department also provides subsidies to higher education through student loans and grants. Unfortunately, that aid has fueled inflation in college tuition and is subject to widespread abuse.



The department will spend $107 billion in 2010, or about $900 for every U.S. household. It employs 4,100 workers and operates 169 different subsidy programs."





Spending Cuts Summary

"The Department of Education should be closed and its programs terminated. The main activity of the department is to provide grants to state and local governments. However, channeling taxpayer dollars through Washington and then back to the states is an inefficient way to fund local activities such as education. It would be better if the states funded their own education programs free of all the paperwork that comes with federal aid.



Federal intervention into primary and secondary schools has steadily increased since the 1960s, but there have been no obvious improvement in educational achievement. Indeed, standardized test scores for K-12 students have been stagnant for decades. Interestingly, Canada has virtually no federal involvement in its schools, but Canadian students generally score higher on international tests than do American students.


The sad truth is that rising control from Washington has probably damaged American schools by reducing local flexibility, retarding innovation, and burying school administrators in regulations. Federal involvement should be ended, and it should be up to the states, the schools, and parents to boost school performance. Cato scholars have proposed many ways to improve the schools.


Federal loans and grants to college students should also be ended. Personal savings, financial institutions, and charitable organizations are more efficient funding sources for college costs. Federal student aid has proven to be hugely wasteful, with large amounts of fraud and abuse combined with inept federal administration. A further problem is that rising federal aid has generated inflation in college tuition and other educational costs. Thus, ending federal student subsidies would create beneficial pressure on colleges and universities to trim their bloated budgets and reduce their tuition.


The table shows that taxpayers would save about $107 billion annually from closing down the department, or more than $900 annually for every U.S. household."




Timeline of Government Growth


This timeline is incredible but it really shows the greatness of President Reagan:

•1981: Reagan's first budget consolidates some education grants into broader block grants and restrains education spending.


•1982: Reagan crafts a proposal to eliminate the Department of Education, but it goes nowhere on Capitol Hill.






Who is John Galt....