The gist here is that scrapping the USDOE would be nearly impossible, but the rhetoric behind the movement reflects a lot of the frustration and anger people are feeling toward the federal government's role in education since NCLB:
The statements on this year’s campaign trail may have been as much about the need to scale back the federal role in education as about the department itself, said Rep. John Kline, R-Minn., who is in line to become chairman of the House Education and Labor Committee when the new Congress convenes in January with a GOP majority in the House.
“I regularly hear from parents, teachers, and school leaders frustrated by Washington micromanaging their classrooms,” Rep. Kline said. “That’s why I and other Republicans are looking for ways to reduce the federal footprint, restore local control, and empower parents. The debate is not just about a cabinet agency, but a broader understanding that education reform does not begin or end in Washington, D.C.” But Mr. Kline has not specifically advocated for dismantling the department.
I am dubious that Congressman Kline will follow through on these sentiments, scaling back the federal footprin,t restoring local control, ending the micromanaging of classrooms.
But at least we're hearing this kind of talk in Washington.
For awhile there, all we seemed to hear was that teachers were bad and needed to be fired, schools were bad and needed to be closed and Bill Gates was a genius who needed to be heeded on all things education.
Oh, wait, we're still hearing that stuff.
Well, at least there's SOME pushback.
Quite ironic that those calling for the abolition of the federal DOE and energetically opposing NCLB, who originally come from pro-segregation/states rights movements, are now one of the hopes of those trying to forestall privatization and corporatist control of the schools. Another one of those odd, Left/ Right convergences that crop up more and more often.
ReplyDeleteIt's actually not at all a new idea. Republicans were discussing it years ago. Of course, when the programs came from a GOP President they were fine. You can count on their pushing programs equally bad as those Duncan likes regardless.
ReplyDeleteMichael : This is similar to some repubs to voting against the cat food commission recommendations which ironically gives Social security a breather. Especially when libruls like Dick Durbin sells out.
ReplyDeleteJohn Kline is from our state (thank gawd not my rep). He told the local station that he would like to reduce testing requirements and save money since he heard lots of complaints from parents and... teachers! But he also praised Dunkin Duncan for taking on teachers unions. What he stands for remains to be seen.
ReplyDelete