History of IDEA
Jeannie Oakes, Founder and Former Director
Youth Voice in School Finance
NEW REPORT: Los Angeles' road to A-G for all
Without Dollars and Sense Powerpoint
Past Educational Opportunity Reports
Scrapping education dept. could be tough task
- 12-03-2010
-
By Alyson Klein/Education Week
During the recent midterm election, a number of conservative Republican candidates eager to clamp down on what they see as bureaucratic waste took aim at scrapping a familiar target: the 30-year-old U.S. Department of Education. But if past attempts are any guide—including under President Ronald Reagan in the early 1980s and a House Republican majority in the mid-1990s—a push to abolish the agency as a cabinet-level department faces steep political and logistical hurdles. The latest wave of interest in eliminating the department came from candidates in this year’s electoral contests. Among them is Sen.-elect Rand Paul, a Kentucky Republican who identifies with the tea party movement and its philosophy of a more limited role for the federal government in such areas as the economy and health care. bBut even GOP Washington veterans who are sympathetic to those views say that it would be virtually impossible to get rid of the department. (more…)
Send this
Print this
