Dismantling the Dept. of Education? Experts Weigh In as Senate Expected to Confirm New Leader

Cato scholars are available to discuss why closing the department would be beneficial. They have written about this in the past and provided several reasons why it is a good idea, including:

• It’s unconstitutional: Education is nowhere in the specific, enumerated powers given to the federal government.
• It’s ineffective: In K‑12 education, there is no meaningful evidence it has improved education outcomes (if we can even agree on what the most important ones are) while it has proven a threat to micromanage with the No Child Left Behind Act, Race to the Top, and Common Core. Meanwhile, student aid programs fuel rampant tuition inflation.
• It’s incompetent: Its biggest job is to administer federal student aid, especially student loans, and it has failed at basic functions like tracking repayments and simplifying the Free Application for Federal Student Aid (FAFSA).
• It’s unnecessary: We had been educating kids for centuries before the Department launched in 1980.
• It’s expensive: The Department employs nearly 4,200 people and costs about $2.8 billion for salaries and expenses.

Below are some additional pieces our scholars have written. If you’d like to speak with them about this, please reach out to mmiller@​cato.​org.

• Feds In The Classroom: How Big Government Corrupts, Cripples, and Compromises American Education
• Cato Handbook for Policy Makers: Department of Education
• States, Don’t Fear the Education Department Reaper
• Ending Federal Student Loans: There Is a Small Window of Opportunity to Get the Government out of Student Lending
• A Quick Cutter’s Guide to the US Department of Education