Given the current state of public education, I am sure that parents wish that those in Washington had been a little less committed. Federal involvement in education has not come without cost. To be sure, the Department of Education has cost us as much as a small war. All of this, of course, comes in the wake of declining test scores and rising illiteracy. The sad fact is that the federal government should never have been involved in the business of public education.
Education is a local concern.
What is necessary for Evansville, Vincennes or Bloomington, is very different from what is needed in San Francisco, Los Angeles, or New York City. The abolition of the Department of Education is necessary. Public education must be returned to its appropriate role at the state and local levels. As a member of the House Republican's New Federalist Group, I have worked to draft a proposal that would accomplish just such a purpose. Legislation will soon be introduced that would ultimately result in the elimination of the Department of Education over the next five years, and would eventually eliminate any role the federal government has in public education.