The incoming Donald Trump administration, and Linda McMahon, tapped to lead the Department of Education, have a major mandate behind them, as well as a chorus of voices adjacent to MAGA calling for the abolishment of the Department of Education itself.
Setting aside the feasibility of demolishing an entire agency — the DOE was only recently established during the Jimmy Carter administration, and its dismantling should not be discounted entirely, as Trump and McMahon, the former World Wrestling Entertainment CEO, will be flanked by Elon Musk’s and Vivek Ramaswamy’s Department of Government Efficiency — what is the justification for keeping the DOE going as it stands today?
Most K-12 education is funded primarily through even shares of local property taxes and state dollars. Federal dollars account for roughly 11% of school funding. Nevertheless, federal dollars come with DOE directives.
Education spending increased 136% by 2021, adjusted for inflation, since the DOE’s establishment in 1977. Like the Pentagon, which failed its seventh consecutive audit, DOE failed its most recent financial workup.
Today, the U.S. spends on average $17,280 per school-aged student. New York spent over $33,000 per student this year, though its eighth grade literacy wasn’t meaningfully better than the national average.
For comparison, Georgia enjoyed similar literacy rates among eighth graders, and spent less than $15,000 per student. Utah spent a mere $10,000 per pupil and beat New York’s eighth grade literacy by five points.
As a percentage of GDP, the U.S. spends similarly to Korea, but far more than other wealthy countries in the Organization for Cooperation and Economic Development. Korea cracked the list of top OECD countries in educational outcomes, along with Finland, Japan, Hong Kong, China, Taiwan, Singapore, Estonia, and Poland. The U.S. didn’t come close to making the list.
Meanwhile, grades have inflated: high school students’ GPAs have increased, while ACT scores have declined in the same span. In other words, students graduating high school are unprepared for college. Math grade inflation was worse.
A full 19% of students graduating are functionally illiterate.
Coinciding with the increasing politicization and ideological shape of the classroom, teachers find students’ capacity to complete reading assignments dwindling, only 21% of students meet college readiness benchmarks, and 43% meet none at all.
The canard that public school funding is tied to student outcomes may have the chance to breathe its last as the incoming Trump administration has the political license to disrupt the current means of doing business.
Is public education a patronage system for Democrats? It sadly appears teachers’ unions are invested in preserving the status quo. Through endorsements and voting with their dollars in the form of campaign spending and lobbying, teachers broke for politicians this election cycle who promised increased funding. Teachers unions spent exactly $0 on conservative candidates and PACs this cycle.
Underlying the debate over more or less funding for education or the abolishment of departments and school choice is the grim reality that education as conducted in America is a failure — and due for a shakeup.
