The GOP’s 40 Year Crusade to Gut the Department of Education

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Abstract

</p><p id="6476">After Reagan left office, the crusade to gut the Department of Education persisted in the Republican party. In 1996, the GOP platform was focused on reducing the size of the government spending and overreach in the schooling system, releasing a statement that said: “The Federal government has no constitutional authority to be involved in school curricula or to control jobs in the market place. This is why we will abolish the Department of Education.”</p><p id="c3ed">At the time, the most powerful Republican congressman, former Speaker of the House Newt Gingrich, drove most of the party’s agenda, and a staple of his leadership was drastically curtailing federal spending, which included education reforms. It’s worth noting: Gingrich received a PhD in European History from Tulane University, where he wrote a dissertation called “Belgian Education Policy in the Congo 1945–1960.” Of all the people who should lead the charge in dismantling the Department of Education, it should come as a surprise that he is one of the most educated in all of Congress. But not much of a surprise, since Republicans are always hypocrites.</p><p id="f7e3">Despite the fact that the GOP has actively tried to defund or privatize the education system for the past few decades, the men that their party keep electing are amongst the most privileged in American society. This couldn’t be more exemplary of the saying: “I got mine, you get yours.” So, after receiving a million dollar education purely from birthright, they don’t think ordinary Americans deserve access to a decent public school education (also from birthright). In other words: Sorry, poor people, be born into a rich family next time if you want to be educated like me.</p><p id="140e">Five of the six presidents in my lifetime attended Ivy League colleges either for college or graduate school (the one exception is Joe Biden). Of course, being successful doesn’t demand a flashy degree, but it certainly helps. While every president from 1989 to 2021 attended one of America’s most elite universities, not all attained such heights the same way.</p><p id="e344">The Bush political dynasty spans 200 years, and not only did both Bushes enter politics after attending Yale, George H.W. Bush’s father was a Connecticut Senator and Yale graduate, too. Trump claims he got into University of Pennsylvania because he’s “like really smart.” But in reality, he was born into # Options an ultra wealthy family with a trust fund, which made him a millionaire at the age of 8 years old. According to his niece, Mary Trump, he paid someone to take his SATs for him because all smart people do that obviously. It should come as no surprise that William T. Kelley, who taught marketing at University of Pennsylvania for 31 years, said “Donald Trump was the dumbest goddamn student I ever had.” He said this over a 100 times before his death. Lucky for him, he died before Trump became president.</p><p id="f96c">Meanwhile, neither Barack Obama nor Bill Clinton came from privileged households, but both were able to attain the same level of education and understand the importance of providing these opportunities to less advantaged Americans. Unlike Trump, you never hear any other presidents boasting about their academic accolades, but here they are: Jimmy Carter graduated from the United States Naval Academy with a ranking of 60 out of 820, putting him in the top 10th percentile of his class; Bill Clinton received a Rhodes Scholarship, of which only 32 Americans qualify for each year; and Barack Obama graduated magna cum laude from Harvard Law School. Each of the three presidents exhibit demonstrable passion to learn. But, of course, that doesn’t mean you believe everyone deserves an equal opportunity to be educated.</p><p id="74df">The debate has become so contentious that while most Democratic politicians support federally subsidized community college and universal preschool, Republicans outright reject any education system at all. This theme even continued into the 2016 primaries, when Gary Johnson, Rand Paul, and Marco Rubio all proposed abolishing the Department of Education. If Donald Trump had a platform to run on in 2020, there is little doubt that eliminating education would’ve been somewhere on the list.</p><div id="b7c8" class="link-block"> <a href="https://aninjusticemag.com"> <div> <div> <h2>An Injustice!</h2> <div><h3>A new intersectional publication, geared towards voices, values, and identities!</h3></div> <div><p>aninjusticemag.com</p></div> </div> <div> <div style="background-image: url(https://miro.readmedium.com/v2/resize:fit:320/1*suDnvWWEvtqQCxA2NEHoRA.png)"></div> </div> </div> </a> </div></article></body>

How the Republican Party helped to foster a country uneducated enough to elect a reality TV star and want to make it even dumber

“The budget plan I submit to you on Feb. 8 will realize major savings by dismantling the Department of Education,” said Ronald Reagan in his first State of the Union address in 1981. At the time, the annual federal spending for the Department of Education was roughly $14 billion, compared to the Department of Defense’s budget of $176 billion that same year.

President Reagan, or as most Boomers call him “the Greatest President of My Lifetime,” sought from Day One to eliminate the federal education system. For the past 40 years, the Republican party continued this fight, so much so that it has become an unofficial component of their political platform.

While waging his war on education, Reagan unsuccessfully pushed for tax credits for parents, who sent their kids to private school, while simultaneously implementing federal spending cuts to public schools. In other words, he attempted to subsidize the costs of parents sending their kids to private school, which accounts for only 10 percent of all students, while defunding the government run program, which caters to the other 90 percent.

When Jimmy Carter created a cabinet position called the Department of Education, Reagan spent years talking tough and claiming he would eliminate the program. He would ultimately leave the program in place, but still cut the Education budget in half. Every wonder why Americans are so poorly educated compared to other developed countries? Part of the reason stems from the fact that Reagan simply couldn’t give a Democrat a “win.” Virtually every Republican politician, since the Department of Education was created, has succeeded in, or proposed, significant budget cuts to this program — despite the fact that the country ranks 40th for mathematics, 25th for science, and 24th for reading. It should come as no surprise that Ronald Reagan was a self-proclaimed “C” student.

After Reagan left office, the crusade to gut the Department of Education persisted in the Republican party. In 1996, the GOP platform was focused on reducing the size of the government spending and overreach in the schooling system, releasing a statement that said: “The Federal government has no constitutional authority to be involved in school curricula or to control jobs in the market place. This is why we will abolish the Department of Education.”

At the time, the most powerful Republican congressman, former Speaker of the House Newt Gingrich, drove most of the party’s agenda, and a staple of his leadership was drastically curtailing federal spending, which included education reforms. It’s worth noting: Gingrich received a PhD in European History from Tulane University, where he wrote a dissertation called “Belgian Education Policy in the Congo 1945–1960.” Of all the people who should lead the charge in dismantling the Department of Education, it should come as a surprise that he is one of the most educated in all of Congress. But not much of a surprise, since Republicans are always hypocrites.

Despite the fact that the GOP has actively tried to defund or privatize the education system for the past few decades, the men that their party keep electing are amongst the most privileged in American society. This couldn’t be more exemplary of the saying: “I got mine, you get yours.” So, after receiving a million dollar education purely from birthright, they don’t think ordinary Americans deserve access to a decent public school education (also from birthright). In other words: Sorry, poor people, be born into a rich family next time if you want to be educated like me.

Five of the six presidents in my lifetime attended Ivy League colleges either for college or graduate school (the one exception is Joe Biden). Of course, being successful doesn’t demand a flashy degree, but it certainly helps. While every president from 1989 to 2021 attended one of America’s most elite universities, not all attained such heights the same way.

The Bush political dynasty spans 200 years, and not only did both Bushes enter politics after attending Yale, George H.W. Bush’s father was a Connecticut Senator and Yale graduate, too. Trump claims he got into University of Pennsylvania because he’s “like really smart.” But in reality, he was born into an ultra wealthy family with a trust fund, which made him a millionaire at the age of 8 years old. According to his niece, Mary Trump, he paid someone to take his SATs for him because all smart people do that obviously. It should come as no surprise that William T. Kelley, who taught marketing at University of Pennsylvania for 31 years, said “Donald Trump was the dumbest goddamn student I ever had.” He said this over a 100 times before his death. Lucky for him, he died before Trump became president.

Meanwhile, neither Barack Obama nor Bill Clinton came from privileged households, but both were able to attain the same level of education and understand the importance of providing these opportunities to less advantaged Americans. Unlike Trump, you never hear any other presidents boasting about their academic accolades, but here they are: Jimmy Carter graduated from the United States Naval Academy with a ranking of 60 out of 820, putting him in the top 10th percentile of his class; Bill Clinton received a Rhodes Scholarship, of which only 32 Americans qualify for each year; and Barack Obama graduated magna cum laude from Harvard Law School. Each of the three presidents exhibit demonstrable passion to learn. But, of course, that doesn’t mean you believe everyone deserves an equal opportunity to be educated.

The debate has become so contentious that while most Democratic politicians support federally subsidized community college and universal preschool, Republicans outright reject any education system at all. This theme even continued into the 2016 primaries, when Gary Johnson, Rand Paul, and Marco Rubio all proposed abolishing the Department of Education. If Donald Trump had a platform to run on in 2020, there is little doubt that eliminating education would’ve been somewhere on the list.