Alaska Congressman Nick Begich is fully supportive of President Trump’s new executive order aimed at dismantling the U.S. Department of Education, hailing it as a bold action to put control of education back into the hands of parents and local communities.
“The Department of Education has dramatically increased spending on an inflation-adjusted basis since its creation but has failed to produce commensurate results,” Begich noted in a March 21 statement. “The centralized one-size-fits-all factory model of education has proven to be a poor approach. It’s time to end this experiment and restore local leadership in education.”
On March 20, Trump signed an executive order to shutter the Department of Education, but it will need Congressional approval to take effect.
Trump sees the 45-year-old federal department as an expensive and colossal failure, which is overrun with radical Marxists. He now wants to restore education authority to individual states in the hope that greater local control will produce better results.
“Since 1979, the U.S. Department of Education has spent over $3 trillion with virtually nothing to show for it,” the Trump administration declared.
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Despite a 245% increase in per-student spending since the department’s founding, 70% of 4th- and 8th-graders are failing reading, and 60% of 4th-graders and 75% of 8th-graders are failing math, according to the White House. Alaska’s numbers are about the same.
In order for Trump’s order to take effect, it needs the support of 60 U.S Senators. Currently, there are only 53 GOP senators.
Alaska Sen. Lisa Murkowski expressed concern about Trump’s move.
“As the President moves forward with his plan for the federal Department of Education, I’ve heard from many who are worried,” she posted to Facebook. “Worried that funding to support opportunities for our most disadvantaged students will be drastically reduced, and that students with disabilities – who have relied on the Department for support – will be left behind.”
Murkowski did, however, seem open to making some minor changes.
“While the President has made his preferences clear, only Congress can shut down the Department,” she added. “As we determine its future, I will look for efficiencies and reforms that can improve educational outcomes – but I will also continue to support the laws, programs, and funding that so many Alaskans rely upon.”
Sen. Dan Sullivan made no public comments on Trump’s order.
9 Comments
This article contains misleading information. NAEP scores in 4th grade reading increased from an average of 208 in the 1970’s to 220 in 220. Math scores increased from 219 to 241 during that time. That improvement is statistically significant. While improvement is necessary, students today outperform students when you went to school.
2020, not for the comparison year.
To abolish a federal agency, a two-thirds majority vote in both the House of Representatives and the Senate is required to pass legislation that would repeal or modify the laws that created the agency. A two-thirds supermajority in the Senate is 67 out of 100 (not 60 as the article incorrectly claims) senators, while a two-thirds supermajority in the House is 290 out of 435 representatives.
The least educated vote conservative.
You’ve got the word educated confused with the word indoctrinated.
ZInger Steve! Conservatives think only of themselves. Progressives think for themselves. Indoctrination means to accept beliefs without critical thinking. For example, a critical thinker could not conclude that a dead man can become alive again. But the Christian church teaches that, it insists that believers have faith without evidence or proof. That’s indoctrination.
Lisa Murkowski has no problem with status quo of how our government waste money and encourages fraud. She is against anything President Trump does to lessen the burden of government encroachment on our wages, and the bloating of bureaucracy. She’s to much of a coward to switch parties, and finally reveal herself to be the true liberal, for fear of losing her power. And now she’s morphing into a cry-baby cause she’s afraid that conservative millionaires are going to finance a strong contender.
“government encroachment on our wages,”? Is that an argument FOR a smaller minimum wage amount? And can you provide readers here with two examples of defensible, verifiable and significant (~$500 million) examples of services that bloat government?
She’s not worried, she’s scared spitless as she should be.