The Department of Education is Even Worse Than You Think

The federal government has wrongly asserted control over children—power must be given back to parents.

A version of this article was originally published at TomKlingenstein.com (Oct. 31, 2024)

Ten years ago, I began seeing the decline of public education when standards were lowered, and the idea of merit was removed from my kids’ public schools. So I pulled them out of public school and opted to homeschool—and my kids thrived. I didn’t run away from the problem though and ran for my local school board where I’ve served as an elected school board member for 8 years in one of the largest districts in my state.

As an insider in the education system, I’ve witnessed how federal government control and unfunded mandates harm local school districts. This deep-dive exposes what is really happening in government funded schools at the behest of the Education Department and provides solutions on how to dismantle the education industrial complex.

The U.S. Department of Education was originally created in 1867 to collect information and statistics about schools across the nation. It was demoted to an Office of Education just a year later in 1868 over concerns the department would “exercise too much control over local schools.” That lesson was soon forgotten, however, and over a century later in 1980 Congress created the cabinet-level Department of Education (DOE)—and now those fears of too much federal control are the frightening reality.

Statistics show that both homeschooled and private school students significantly outperform their public school peers in testing and college acceptance rates. Yet the DOE continues to grow while their students continue to fall behind. Why? Because the Democrat party has used schools to further their political agendas and indoctrination rather than focus on academic achievement.

President Joe Biden’s 2025 budget for the DOE highlights the desire to “improve outcomes from cradle to career.” Yes, the government wants to insert itself in every stage of a child’s development—from the hospital delivery room through college indoctrination. The communist idea of the government controlling outcomes—rather than opportunities—is now a central tenet pushed by the DOE under the Biden-Harris administration.

Through the DOE, taxpayer funds have been used to promote LGBTQ+ ideologies, racist equity agendas, and radical climate change hoaxes. The Education Department has even been used to promote illegal immigration. It’s the biggest promoter of communist ideas in the country, demonizing capitalism and traditional American values.

For millions of families, this indoctrination into radical, Marxist ideology was exposed during the nightmare of COVID virtual learning, but it goes back decades.

Communism relies on the education system to achieve its goals, specifically to produce revolutionaries to fight against the “old order” and create a new generation of useful idiots to fulfill their agenda. Communists use the education system to indoctrinate children into their way of thinking and to produce an obedient society—not to produce critical thinkers that will challenge the government. Does this sound familiar? Kamala Harris’ slogan is “A New Way Forward.” Cuban dictator Fidel Castro’s campaign slogan was “Forward” and the Chinese communist party champions a “Great Leap Forward”—Harris’ theme fits right in.

Another prong necessary for communism to succeed is to oppose God and all forms of religion. Christianity, is especially a threat to the revolutionary mindset because obedience to God would be superior to obedience to the government. God has been completely removed from American public schools—the primary reason for their failures.

These communist practices are evident in the methods used by the DOE and every American should be outraged.

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You’re Funding the Racist Equity Agenda

Public schools no longer prioritize academic excellence as the goal. “Equity” agendas have taken over every facet of education. Kamala Harris championed the definition of equity to mean “we all end up in the same place.” She further explained that equality is a problem because it suggests that “everyone should get the same amount.” Rather than treating every child equally, she believes in equity where some students will be favored over others. Simply put, equality focuses on everyone having the same opportunity, but equity promotes everyone having the same outcome—a Marxist-communist principle.

The DOE promotes the equity narrative in everything it does. Promoting social justice, the LGBTQ agenda, and illegal immigrant protections are the primary focus of the taxpayer-funded Education Department. The Democratic Party’s woke mob dictates the indoctrination agenda and the DOE implements that agenda through grants given to third party consultants, non-governmental organizations (NGOs), and state and local school districts.

The DOE has funded 4 regional Equity Assistance Centers at an annual taxpayer cost of $6.5 million. These centers facilitate the leftist equity agenda across the nation. The Mid-Atlantic Equity Consortium’s Center for Education Equity (CEE) is the DOE’s source for equity indoctrination in the Northeast. Its mission is to “promote excellence and equity in education to achieve social justice.” After receiving federal taxpayer dollars, CEE then sells its consulting services to school divisions—netting even more taxpayer funds.

In 2021, the Montgomery County school district contracted with CEE for $454,680 (state and local taxpayer dollars) to conduct an “anti-racist system audit.” The audit was to focus on examining practices that fail to create “equitable outcomes for every student.” What that really means is to ensure that black and Hispanic students are achieving the same outcomes as white and Asian students, even if that means taking away resources and opportunities from white and Asian students to redistribute to black and Hispanic students. Rather than a redistribution of wealth it’s a redistribution of resources to control outcomes—a Marxist objective.

The CEE also provides professional development for educators. In 2021 they offered training on “How to teach culturally responsive social studies when everything is controversial.” In the training they praise Black Lives Matter and encourage fighting against the police, and they push critical race theory narratives that white people are oppressors. The far-left Southern Poverty Law Center is one of their key curriculum resources of “culturally sustaining pedagogy.”

It's outrageous that taxpayer dollars are funding these repulsive programs that seek to divide rather than unite Americans. Congress should review how money is being used through third party vendors that are not benefiting students academically. The firehose of taxpayer dollars being used to indoctrinate children for communist agendas must end.

Encouraging Illegal Immigration

Illegal immigration is decimating the already failed public education system. Resources are being taken away from American citizens and directed toward the growing number of children who can’t speak English. In 2021, 10.6 percent of public-school students required English as a Second Language (ESL) services—meaning they couldn’t communicate at school without extra resources. Thanks to Kamala Harris’ open border policies, it’s predicted that 1 out of 4 children will be ESL students as early as next year.

The DOE has an entire department that recruits aliens who have crossed the border illegally to enroll in American taxpayer funded schools. The DOE Office of Migrant Education proactively seeks out illegal aliens to add to the growing ESL population. Public schools are failing at educating American students, they certainly don’t have the tools to educate the growing illegal alien population. In 2023, the DOE gave away $3 million to states just for recruiting more “migrant” students for their schools. This is just a small fraction of the total amount of money being spent on “migrant students.” In the 2021–22 school year, over 5 million ESL students were enrolled in government run schools.

The DOE now refers to students in the country illegally as “newcomers.” School districts are offered a DOE toolkit which encourages the establishment of “newcomer programs” that offer more resources and special treatment to “migrant” students. These specialty programs have popped up in districts across the nation, at the encouragement of the DOE, and provide small class sizes and individualized instruction. The toolkit even encourages teacher home visits to welcome “newcomer” families in a “safe and convenient environment.” These same opportunities and resources are not afforded to students who are citizens.

In 1982, the Supreme Court ruled in Plyler v. Doe that it is a violation of the Equal Protection Clause to deny public education to illegal alien children. One aspect of Plyler that isn’t discussed is that the legal decision did not overturn an earlier ruling that education is not a fundamental right. This may leave the door open to legislation that could restrict “undocumented” students if a legitimate state concern is established.

States should consider reviewing the Plyler decision and crafting legislation that could be upheld. Legislation to prohibit the enticement and recruiting of illegal alien students to be enrolled in public schools could be a start.

Grooming Kids

The DOE has yet another “toolkit” for the use of indoctrinating students into their “New Way Forward” thinking. The Biden-Harris administration has pushed all ideals of biblical faith out of public schools, but they have welcomed their own transsexual religious cult to take hold.

The DOE encourages teachers and administrators to helps students establish “gender and sexuality alliance (GSA)” groups at their schools. It is unfathomable that the government promotes adults having conversations with children about sex and sexuality. If that was done outside of school, the adults would be arrested. The toolkit also encourages teachers to “engage parents in learning” about the needs of LGBTQI+ students—essentially telling teachers to have a conversation with parents who aren’t affirming of their children’s radical gender ideology choices.

The DOE also advocates erasing men and women by encouraging the use of gender-neutral terms. They oppose using the term father and mother, and brother and sister, favoring the use of “parent” or “sibling.” Additionally, schools are encouraged to use grant money, provided by Congress, to further the LGBT+ agenda.

One webinar promoted by the DOE gives a platform to the extremist group GLSEN (formerly the Gay, Lesbian & Straight Education Network), which promotes the cult of transgenderism. GLSEN has an educator “safe space kit” used by teachers around the nation that includes signs that encourage students to talk with teachers about their sexuality or mental health issues around sex, sexual orientation, or transgenderism. If these practices happened outside the walls of the schools with these same minors, the teachers would be arrested.

One of the guest speakers in the DOE-funded webinar was a transgender teacher who teaches high school biology and promotes the importance of sharing pronouns and using “inclusive” language. She pontificated that it’s wrong in a biology class to instruct that it’s “women who produce eggs,” but teachers should teach that it’s “ovaries that produce eggs,” and “not all egg producers are women.” More examples of taxpayer dollars funding the radical transgender agenda and trying to erase women.

The DOE also distributed a welcome message for transgender students which stressed support for boys to be permitted to play in girls’ sports and encouraged trans students to file complaints if they are denied access to sports of their choice.

Most egregiously, the Biden-Harris administration’s DOE rewrote Title IX regulations, trying to abolish the hard-fought rights of girls to have equal access in academics and sports. This unelected bureaucracy is trying to erase females by allowing males to invade their spaces and take away opportunities.

Congress needs to clarify through legislation that sex and gender are based on facts of biology such as chromosomes and reproductive organs because vulnerable girls must be protected.

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Replacing God with Climate Change?

In 2006, former Vice President Al Gore made apocalyptic claims that the world would be at a point of no return in ten years due to “global warming.” He also claimed in 2009 that the North Pole would be ice-free by 2013. The U.S. government is still pushing climate change hoaxes through the Education Department.

In 2022, the DOE issued a “climate adaptation plan” that instructed schools how to use COVID-19 relief money to push environmentalist beliefs on America’s school children. The Center for Green Schools is a partner of the DOE whose “Green Strides” website provides links to resources for teachers that indoctrinate students on “climate justice” issues.  Lessons push the false notion that eating meat causes harm to the environment, encouraging students to go vegan. One video instructs that livestock “burps and farts are responsible for over 27 percent of methane emissions.” From the video: “Beef is the worst: meat and dairy produce roughly the same emissions as all cars, trucks, airplanes, and ships combined.” Yes, the Education Department is instructing students that hamburgers will destroy the planet.

So-called “environmental justice” is another pillar of the DOE’s 2022 climate adaptation plan. One of the partner groups used by the DOE is the far-Left group Green Schools National Network (GSNN). They claim their work on sustainability education “is situated in a complex, social-political context,” openly admitting their agenda is political. GSNN promotes social justice resources for educators created by the radical Southern Poverty Law Center’s Teaching Tolerance.

If the DOE wasn’t already big enough, in 2023 the Biden administration proposed a budget increase to fund yet another department called the Office of Infrastructure and Sustainability. It doesn’t appear that item was funded but that hasn’t stopped the DOE from charging ahead with its climate initiatives. In its 2024 climate adaptation plan, the DOE stressed the problem of student and staff “climate-related anxiety,” and proclaimed that climate change presents a risk of disrupting learning. These doomsday tactics are driving the climate agenda in schools across the nation.

The DOE ignores the rules set by Congress admitting they have “limited statutory authority to address either school curriculum or facilities and grounds directly, two critical leverage points for climate adaptation.” To get around this they work “creatively and utilize low-cost public engagement and new capacity building programs to show leadership and highlight innovative practices for climate resilience and school sustainability.”

The DOE promotes ways around the law advising the use of funds such as Impact Aid and the Elementary and Secondary School Emergency Relief Fund to be used to promote the climate agenda. Impact Aid is a program meant to provide extra funds to districts that may lose out on tax revenue due to federal installations such as military bases being in their locality.

In 2023, Congress gave the DOE $37 million for “supporting America’s school infrastructure.” These are grants provided to states do not give one dime toward actual school construction but will be used to assess challenges, needs, and training in best practices for maintenance and operations. The money will also help establish databases for tracking school facility conditions. In short, it will do nothing to actually help local school districts build schools, but will certainly create more bureaucracy while promoting a “climate justice” agenda.

Congress must evaluate whether the DOE is using loopholes or breaking the law to promote their radical environmental justice agenda. They must also stop authorizing money that won’t improve academics for students.

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Creating Student Discipline Problems

In 2014, President Obama issued a harmful “Dear Colleague Letter” on the topic of student discipline in schools. The directive warned schools they needed to reduce the disparity of punishment for black males versus other student groups, implying schools had racist motives for disciplining black males more than their peers. The fact that black males committed more discipline infractions didn’t matter to him.

After Obama’s directive, local school districts became fearful of disciplining black males. Schools across the nation began implementing discipline policies using racial quota limits. Predictably, this caused discipline problems to skyrocket across all racial demographics because rules were no longer enforced and failed methods of discipline such as “positive behavioral” techniques and “restorative justice” programs were implemented.

In 2023, a teacher in Newport News, Virginia was shot by a 6 -year-old student—a black male. The grand jury report indicated multiple previous discipline problems with this child that should have removed him from school. Newport News schools use Obama’s restorative justice discipline methods.

The federal government also warned schools about exclusionary discipline practices for students with disabilities. Schools then began to relax the rules for this population of students. The student who killed 17 others in Parkland, Florida was considered a special education student due to his emotional problems. Andrew Pollack lost his daughter during that massacre and blamed the Obama-era policies for promoting lax discipline practices. Pollack alleges that the shooter was referred to an alternative restorative discipline program rather than being referred to law enforcement for troubling behavior.

School staff across the country reported feeling unsafe in schools in the wake of the Obama directive. In 2018, teacher survey results in southeastern Virginia indicated that 57 percent of teachers said students at their schools get away with breaking the rules easily. Only 49 percent of school staff said discipline practices were effective.

President Trump rescinded the Obama era directives, but Biden’s education and justice departments put out their own directives in 2023. The Biden-Harris policies again emphasize reducing racial disparities in discipline practices rather than focusing on how to improve student behavior.

These federal directives are just more examples of unlawful government overreach that must be curtailed.

(READ MORE: How To Tell If The ‘Nonpartisan’ School Board Candidates On Your Ballot Are Radical Democrats)

Get Uncle Sam Out of the Classroom

The United States spends much more than the global average per student on education and devotes an enormous amount of time and energy on the topic. Yet American students fall farm behind their peers across the globe because government schools focus on woke indoctrination rather than academic achievement.

Among other federal legislation, No Child Left Behind enacted under George W. Bush and Every Student Succeeds Act (ESSA) enacted under Obama, increased the federal government’s role in education but certainly didn’t improve student outcomes. In 2023, Congress authorized a budget of $79.6 billion for the DOE, yet academic performance among students continues to decline. Larger government is not the answer to education problems in America.

American 15-year-old students rank an abysmal 34th in the world in math literacy and 15th in science. The numbers were better in reading literacy with a ranking of 9th globally, but still very concerning—that ranking should be number one.

Social and political agendas are overtaking academics as the core reason for educating children. Merit no longer matters in government schools. It’s nearly impossible for a student to fail and not graduate. Virginia reported a 93 percent graduation rate in 2023 for all students in the state—yet in the same year, only 65 percent of students passed the writing standardized test and only 69 percent passed the math test. Bottom line is students are being passed through school because it will look poorly on district or state data if they report low graduation rates.

The government, through the U.S. Department of Education, is influencing children “from cradle to career.” Both political parties have enabled this federal takeover of education—and it must end. Otherwise, American students will continue to fall behind our adversaries such as China.

The only answer to improving education for children is to promote a capitalist approach to education—competition. Right now, government schools have no reason to provide an exceptional—or even adequate—product. No matter how poorly schools perform, the government continues to hand them money out of the taxpayers’ wallets.

Right now, in states with no education freedom, the only students who have an option to leave failing schools are those in wealthy families. That must change since education is compulsory under state laws and parents must be given an option so their children can thrive.

The Government Education Industrial Complex must be dismantled. Congress should start by implementing the action items mentioned in this report.

1. Grant money should never be given to third party vendors unless there is a money-back guarantee that children will benefit academically in core content areas such as reading, writing, math, or workforce skills. The firehose of taxpayer dollars being used to indoctrinate children in divisive ideas must never be permitted.
2. Legislation should be explored that would prohibit the enticement and recruiting of illegal alien students to be enrolled in public schools. Illegal alien students should not receive better treatment than citizens.
3. Congress must protect girls. Legislation should be passed to clarify that sex and gender are based on facts of biology such as chromosomes and reproductive organs—not gender ideology. Further, those who object to their children being subject to an LGBTQ agenda in school for moral and religious reason must be protected.
4. The DOE must no longer be permitted to use loopholes or break the law to promote their radical environmental justice agenda. Congress must stop authorizing money that will be used to promote climate-based extremism.
5. Eliminate federal government involvement in college funding and put it back in the hands of private industry.

In addition, political activists such as teachers’ unions (NEA, AFT, etc.) and the National School Boards Association (NSBA) should be banned from having any influence at the DOE. These organizations have influenced policy decisions—including forcing kids needlessly into virtual learning—causing long-lasting negative repercussions. It’s one thing to lobby legislators, but they should not be lobbying unelected taxpayer funded bureaucrats who don’t answer to parents or voters.

The DOE’s only function should be to promote academic achievement in core content areas or workforce development. Departments and offices within the DOE that aren’t directly related to improving academic achievement and workforce development should be dismantled. As this dismantling occurs, the education department should be working for the taxpayers and students of this nation and not Washington insiders.

Money that is saved from the dismantling of the DOE should be redistributed to states. A restriction should be placed on the funds requiring they only be used for education freedom programs such as education savings accounts.

Federal government education mandates must be abolished and the government’s talons that have gripped education must be removed. Control must be given back to parents who are the most important educators of their children. Public schools can still thrive if control is placed back into the hands of local school boards while also allowing tax dollars to follow the students who choose alternatives to government schools.

States must start pushing back against unconstitutional federal government overreach. The 10th Amendment to the Constitution dictates that federal powers not enumerated in the Constitution shall be delegated to the states. Therefore the federal government has no power to dictate education requirements to the states. States can and must push back or refuse to abide by mandates such as ESSA—in the long run they’ll be better off. States may have to forfeit federal money that comes with those mandates, but often times the mandates cost more than the money provided to implement the mandates.

Ultimately it is the voice of the taxpayer and voter who will be the change agents. Voters need to start electing representatives at the federal, state, and local levels who support education freedom—not communist indoctrination in public schools. Parents are the most important educators and must be viewed as such by those who want to represent America. Leaders must be elected who want children to not only be educated but to thrive in math, science, and workforce development. For the United States to have a strong and educated citizenry and to be leaders on the world stage power must be given back to where it belongs—to parents.

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