Thomas Massie

U.S. Rep. Thomas Massie, a Republican, represents Northern Kentucky. Op-ed contributions of 550-650 words may be emailed to letters@enquirer.com.

Should a presidential appointee and an army of bureaucrats in a remote office building thousands of miles away decide what values, morals and ideas to instill in your children? I think not. Of all the harmful things our government in Washington, D.C., does, micromanaging education is perhaps the worst.

That is why this month, I introduced a one-sentence bill to abolish the federal Department of Education. H.R. 899 simply states: "The Department of Education shall terminate on December 31, 2018." This gives the department two years to dismantle, and it also gives both Congress and the states time to adjust and address the return of taxpayer dollars to state and local governments.

After all, education is inherently a local matter. In a free society, parents, families, churches and local communities are responsible for education. Parents are the primary educators of their children, and they should decide which type of education is best, not the government.

As soon as President Carter established this agency, President Reagan sought to eliminate it. As Reagan said in 1981, "By eliminating the Department of Education less than 2 years after it was created, we can not only reduce the budget," but also "ensure that local needs and preferences, rather than the wishes of Washington, determine the education of our children."

The goal of my bill is smarter spending of education dollars. While many Kentucky school districts struggle financially, the 4,500 employees of the Department of Education fare quite well, making an average of $105,000 a year. Imagine what could be done with that money to help students learn if it weren’t being spent in Washington. Moreover, consider how much more effective our teachers and school administrators could be if they were freed from the red tape.

Many of my colleagues appreciate the brevity and clarity of my eight-word bill. In fact, it already has seven co-sponsors. But critics rightfully point out that the bill does not speak to the disposition of the many spending programs currently administered by the Department.

Today, 10 percent of education funding passes through the Department of Education. In the absence of a federal department, this money could be handled in three ways:

Keep all the federal programs, but transfer administration of them to other departments. This would be the least disruptive option. Most of the programs, like those established by the Individuals with Disabilities Education Act (IDEA), were up and running before the Department of Education existed. For example, Pell Grants and student loans could be transferred to the Treasury Department, while teacher training grants could be transferred to the Department of Labor. Some may be surprised to learn that Head Start is already under the Department of Health and Human Services (HHS) and school lunches are run by the United States Department of Agriculture (USDA). The transfer and consolidation of programs currently administered by the Department of Education to other agencies could help eliminate waste, fraud, and abuse. For example, in his 2015 report titled "Wastebook: the Farce Awakens," Sen. Jeff Flake notes that under the Department of Education's watch, an Inspector General discovered that more than 34,000 participants in crime rings had received federal financial student aid.

Block-grant all the money to the states. Each state already has its own Department of Education, and states are more than capable of overseeing the money.

Devolve all education spending, including the collection of taxes, to the state and local levels. Although this is my preference, my bill does not prescribe this outcome.

Regardless of the manner in which it is accomplished, it is long past time to eliminate this wasteful federal bureaucracy. Let’s return control of education and educational spending to parents, teachers and school boards, where it belongs.