Do We Need the Department of Education? | 5-Minute Videos | PragerU — Transcript

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1. 0:02Do we need a department of education?
2. 0:04There's a good reason to ask this
3. 0:06question. Before 1979, the American
4. 0:09public education system, which was
5. 0:11almost entirely managed by state and
6. 0:13local governments, was widely
7. 0:15acknowledged as the best in the world.
8. 0:18Almost half a century later, no one can
9. 0:21make that claim. Right now, the United
10. 0:23States is ranked 28th in the world in
11. 0:26math and 36th in literacy.
12. 0:30One in four eighth graders lacks a basic
13. 0:32proficiency in math. One in three are
14. 0:35not reading at grade level. Only 13% are
15. 0:38proficient in US history. In certain
16. 0:41cities, the numbers are truly appalling.
17. 0:44For example, in Chicago, 22 schools
18. 0:47didn't have a single student who was
19. 0:50proficient in reading comprehension, and
20. 0:5233 schools didn't have a single student
21. 0:55who was proficient in math. It's not a
22. 0:58money problem. According to the most
23. 1:00recent numbers, the United States spends
24. 1:03$17,000 per student. In Chicago, it's
25. 1:0729,000. So, what changed? How did our
26. 1:10education system go from outstanding to
27. 1:13embarrassing? There are many reasons, of
28. 1:15course, from too much screen time to not
29. 1:17enough engaged parents. But we can be
30. 1:19confident in one conclusion. The
31. 1:21Department of Education hasn't helped.
32. 1:24And the case can be made that it has
33. 1:26actually made things worse. Again, it
34. 1:29wasn't for lack of money. In 2024, the
35. 1:32department's budget was
36. 1:34268 billion. Where's all that money
37. 1:36going and for what? To answer that
38. 1:39question, we need to go back to
39. 1:421979. The president that year was Jimmy
40. 1:44Carter. The 1980 election was closing
41. 1:47fast, and Carter's chances were not
42. 1:50looking good. Beset by the Iran hostage
43. 1:52crisis, crippling inflation, and
44. 1:54gasoline shortages, Carter's approval
45. 1:57ratings had plummeted to a dismal 28%.
46. 2:01He needed all the friends he could get,
47. 2:03and there was no better friend than the
48. 2:05largest labor union in the country, the
49. 2:08National Education Association. It had
50. 2:11been agitating for a department of
51. 2:12education for decades without success.
52. 2:15No one besides the teachers unions
53. 2:17thought it was necessary. But politics
54. 2:20is politics. So Carter gave the union
55. 2:23what it wanted. A brand new government
56. 2:25department and all the perks that go
57. 2:27with it. A big budget, a big stick with
58. 2:30which to threaten local schools. Adopt
59. 2:32this program or you won't get federal
60. 2:34dollars, and a big bureaucracy which
61. 2:36they could fill with their loyalists.
62. 2:39One anonymous House Democrat admitted as
63. 2:42much at the time. The idea of an
64. 2:44education department is a really bad
65. 2:47one, but it's NEA's top priority. There
66. 2:50are school teachers in every
67. 2:51congressional district, and most of us
68. 2:54simply don't need the aggravation of
69. 2:56taking them on. Bad idea or not, what
70. 2:59was good for the education of American
71. 3:01children took a backseat to Carter's
72. 3:03election prospects. In 1979, he signed
73. 3:07the Department into law. From its
74. 3:09inception, the Department of Education
75. 3:12was a political institution. It was
76. 3:14never intended to help students. It was
77. 3:16intended to help the Democratic Party
78. 3:19and the unions. And in that assignment,
79. 3:22it gets an A+. Its employees, almost all
80. 3:26Democrats, make a very good living. And
81. 3:28a big chunk of them, over
82. 3:302500, are doing great, making well over
83. 3:34$100,000 a year. The department
84. 3:36dispenses about 80 billion to schools
85. 3:39across the country for educationally
86. 3:41questionable initiatives like teacher
87. 3:43development, diversity training,
88. 3:46critical theory studies, and climate
89. 3:49change awareness. But most of the money
90. 3:51goes to hiring more school
91. 3:53administrators, counselors, and their
92. 3:55assistants. Reading, writing, and math.
93. 3:58The basics are not, it would seem, a
94. 4:00high priority. The unions get the jobs
95. 4:03and the goodies. The Democrats get the
96. 4:06votes. The NEA has endorsed every
97. 4:09Democratic presidential nominee since
98. 4:11Carter and a vehicle to push their ideas
99. 4:14on America's youth. These ideas have
100. 4:16become more bizarre with each passing
101. 4:19year. Here's one recent example out of
102. 4:22dozens I could site. Under the Biden
103. 4:24administration, the department gave
104. 4:27Framingham State University $1.3 million
105. 4:31to write a textbook. That's $1.3 million
106. 4:34for one book for high school students
107. 4:37that provides a lens for understanding
108. 4:40the evolving definition of family
109. 4:43through socially constructed and
110. 4:45ecological theory frameworks, whatever
111. 4:48that means. Name something radical
112. 4:50happening in our schools like boys
113. 4:52competing against girls in sports and
114. 4:54the department of education has been
115. 4:56behind it. So, do we need a department
116. 4:59of education? The answer would seem to
117. 5:02be needed for what? If it's just to
118. 5:05distribute money, why do we need another
119. 5:08giant bureaucracy to do it? Why not give
120. 5:10the money directly to the states from
121. 5:12the Treasury Department? If the
122. 5:14alternative is let's not close the
123. 5:17department altogether, let's reform it.
124. 5:19How do you reform something into
125. 5:21something it was never intended to be?
126. 5:24But if the department really exists as a
127. 5:27slush fund for the teachers unions and
128. 5:29the educational elite and as a
129. 5:31laboratory for social experimentation on
130. 5:34our kids, then there's only one viable
131. 5:37solution. Shut it down. I'm Marissa
132. 5:40Stright for Prager University. Thank you
133. 5:42for watching this video. To keep PragerU
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135. 5:46taxdeductible donation.