Fun Fact - - > In 1994, McCain proposed ‘doing away’ with Dept. of Education.»

[babylonsister]

http://thinkprogress.org/2008/09/09/mccain-department-education/

In 1994, McCain proposed ‘doing away’ with Dept. of Education.»

Greg Sargent notes that in a 1994 interview, Sen. John McCain (R-AZ) suggested that the U.S. should abolish the Department of Energy and the Department of Education:

FRANK SESNO: Senator McCain, would you favor doing away with the Department of Housing and Urban Development or the Department of Energy?

McCAIN: I would certainly favor doing away with the Department of Energy and I think that given the origins of the Department of Education, I would favor doing away with it as well. HUD had experienced many failures under both Republican and Democrat administrations and I would certainly want to revamp it from the bottom up, because, clearly, public housing in America is almost as big a disaster as the welfare program…

McCain spokesperson Tucker Bounds, in a statement, said that “nothing that John McCain has proposed would reduce funding for public schools.”

[liberal N proud]

1. I am sure he would push for vouchers at the least

[alsame]

2. Repubs despise public education. It just kills them that schools

are not corporations that make big bucks for their friends. Halliburton High, anyone? WalMart Middle School? Enron Elementary?

[donco6]

3. I could do without the Dept of Ed. myself.

All they're about these days is trying to enforce NCLB, which is as lame a duck as the President.

In a little district like mine, you're completely at the mercy of the state Departments of Education telling you what you qualify for in Title funds. In our case, while our Free/Reduced population has skyrocketed, the funding has declined because the feds use federal Census data to distribute their funds, and in my community, no one fills out the census (for various reasons).

Applying for federal grants through the Dept. of Ed is an exercise in frustration unparalleled in human history. Again, a small district like mine cannot compete against the Chicago's and Miami's, where a multi-million award can get sucked down a black hole never to be heard from again. I'd be ecstatic to get $50,000, but that's not going to happen.

Personally, I think the move toward a national curriculum is a mistake, and will result in only more regimented schools. The Dept of Ed wields too much power over curriculum as it is. If it were abolished, they could roll the funding distribution into the Dept of the Treasury and be done with it.

[DangerDave921]

4. what does it do?

We seemed to do OK in this country without a federal Dept. of Education for many many years. I don't see why education is a federal issue at all. It really is a local issue.

[donco6]

6. Mainly it distributes entitlement grants

Title I is the biggest - provides funding for low-income schools. But because a school accepts the funds, it gets locked in to complying with a million rules and regs, not the least of which is NCLB. So, although only about 4% of our funding is from the feds, 80% of the most onerous regulations are from the feds. It's a golden handcuff in the worst way.

[Hugabear]

5. This is a popular view among conservatives

I know a lot of them who would love to see the DOE abolished, and make education an "every man for himself" deal.