Donald Trump has ordered a plan to shutter the U.S. Department of Education and transfer its programs to the states, giving Congress a roadmap on how to accomplish that.
This is a long-term project with no certainty of success. While the Education Department has many enemies, it also has many friends in both parties. With an FY 2025 budget of $82.5 billion, there’s plenty of cash to spread around.
That $82.5 billion is in addition to the $276 billion spent to help K-12 students “catch up” after the pandemic. The government called that program “The Education Stabilization Fund.” The truth is, it didn’t stabilize anything.
The National Assessment of Educational Progress (NAEP) is often called “The Nation’s Report Card” because it’s administered to so many students. The results from the 2024 NAEP test reveal the total failure of our Education Department.
“The percentage of eighth graders who have ‘below basic’ reading skills according to NAEP was the largest it has been in the exam’s three-decade history — 33 percent,” reports the New York Times. “The percentage of fourth graders at “below basic” was the largest in 20 years, at 40 percent.”
The…
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