The ROG Report

Michael G. Haran, Proprietor

DEPT OF EDUCATION SHUT DOWN

Posted by on Feb 13, 2025

By Michael Haran

2/13/2025

The reasoning behind Donald Trump’s obsession with shutting down the Department of Education (DOE) are two fold – and maybe three. First, like the rest of his attack on the Federal bureaucracy, is to cut federal spending so his next round of tax cuts for the wealthy won’t have as big an impact on the Federal deficit. The second, which is political, is that most of Trump’s supporters are the MAGA uneducated so it’s in Trump’s best interest to keep them uneducated. 

One of his mantras from the November election was “Never underestimate the stupidity of the American public.” They voted for him because they enjoyed the entertainment aspects of Trump’s campaign and were too uneducated to see what Trump’s election would mean to their own self interests. How’s his promise to cut grocery prices on day one working out?

And, number three, since Trump has stated his second administration will be one of revenge, maybe since he was such a terrible student, he’s taking revenge on the DOE because he can’t read. Pure speculation. 

Now, like a lot of other Trump’s hatchet jobs, unlike the states which have to keep a tighter watch on their fiscal policies, there is a lot of waste in the Federal bureaucracy because all Federal agencies know that if need be, the Feds can just print more money. Over the years there has developed a Federal bureaucracy welfare system including the DOE. Many federal employees get paid exorbitant salaries for doing repetitive work or no work at all. This also happens at the state level where some school administrators are getting paid $150k a year to administer a middle school. Those overpayments should go to teachers.

Because the DOE oversees the country’s school system, facilitates the federal grant and student-loan system, collects student data, enforces civil rights and manages the federal student aid system, it should not be shut down. I’m sure it needs a fiscal makeover but the services it provides to the state school systems, students and parents in keeping America educated are invaluable. 

 These are some of the DOE’s key responsibilities that would be impacted if the agency shuts down.

 Manages grants and student loans

 One of the DOE’s primary tasks is facilitating the $1.7 trillion student-loan portfolio. Over 40 million student-loan borrowers hold federal loans, and the department’s Federal Student Aid office works with student-loan servicers to manage borrowers’ loan repayment.

 FSA is also responsible for managing a range of student-loan repayment and relief programs, including the Public Service Loan Forgiveness program. It develops the Free Application for Federal Student Aid, or FAFSA form, for students each year and provides Pell Grants for low-income and middle-income college students.

 Additionally, the department manages grants for US public schools. Those include Title I funding, which gives funds to school districts in lower-income communities, along with funding for districts that teach students with disabilities.

 Collects data on student outcomes

 The DOE’s research arm collects data to monitor key student outcomes, including math and reading literacy scores. The most recent scores, collected through the National Assessment of Education Progress, found that kids are continuing to decline in reading literacy.

Nat Malkus, a senior fellow and deputy director of education policy at the conservative think tank American Enterprise Institute, previously told BI that “if it weren’t for the Department of Education,” we wouldn’t even know where kids’ proficiency levels stand.

 The Institute of Education Sciences, a nonpartisan research arm within the department, funds research on education issues nationwide, including teacher quality, educational interventions, and classroom reform at all levels. State education agencies collect data under federal reporting requirements; the DOE primarily keeps track of overall national trends at US schools and provides funding for data collection.

The Push Back

Eliminating any federal agency requires approval from the U.S. Congress, and while some Republican lawmakers have introduced legislation to get rid of the Department of Education, there has not yet been enough support to make that happen. Many of the DOEs funding of lower-income communities are in the GOP’s red states which would not go over well with their constituents. 

 

Still, Trump has been working to reduce many federal agency functions over the past weeks by laying off staff and canceling the programs they oversee, as he recently did with the US Agency for International Development. Trump and some GOP lawmakers have said that education can be managed at the local level, and a federal agency isn’t needed, so we will see if any bureaucratic waste can be eliminated without doing away with the department’s vital services.

Some Republicans have previously suggested that the Treasury Department could facilitate these programs without the DOE; shifting those responsibilities would be a significant undertaking, education policy experts have said.

To give you some idea how lame Trump is on the subject of eliminating the DOE he said one of his goals is to send education back to the states, who control classroom curriculum, and then signs an executive order directing the states to “promote patriotic education” in public schools and eliminate ideologies that do not align with his politics. He wants the Feds out of the school business and dictates to them. Such an idiot. 

And to sum up, Trump reiterated to reporters on February 12 that he wants the Department of Education to be closed “immediately,” adding that the department “is a big con job.” Now if the DOE is nothing but a big “con job” Trump should know since he is one of the biggest con artists of all time. And finally, there is not a state or Federal school program that can equal good parenting.

The source data for this article came from an article written by Ayelet Sheffey for the Business Insider. Trump wants the Department of Education to be closed ‘immediately.’ Here’s what shutting it down would mean.

 

 

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IS IT TIME FOR THE PITCHFORKS AND TORCHES?

Posted by on Feb 9, 2025

By Michael Haran

2/5/2025

After the first couple of weeks of Trump’s second go around it’s obvious that his campaign bluster about dismantling the Federal government wasn’t buster at all and, after denying any knowledge of Project 2025, it turns out to be his master plan. It remains to be seen if the Democrats can stop this full on assault of our constitution and democracy without the support from the courts and ultimately the Supreme Court.

A few years ago I read an article by AlterNet’s Chauncy Devega’s interview with Pulitzer winner Chris Hedges (“Oligarchs don’t care about democracy,” 4/28/20). Hedges stated, “The oligarchs don’t care about democracy. They don’t care about the truth. They are not interested in the consent of the governed. They could care less about social and income inequality. They are not going to rein in the surveillance state. In fact, as things deteriorate, the surveillance state is going to expand. The oligarchs do not care about job losses because, as Karl Marx said, unemployment creates greater pools of desperate surplus labor. The oligarchs do not care about the climate. It’s all about the primacy of profit and corporate power — and those values and systems are extinguishing our democracy.”

Now I don’t deny Chris Hedges’ take on the surveillance state but I do think that our democracy, despite constant warning to the contrary, has enough built-in checks and balances to keep us from going over to the dark side. That said, this recent assault by Trump, Musk and their synophants will surely test that assumption.  Although, under the guises of cutting the cost of big government for the middle class, when the reality is to pay for the huge tax cuts for the wealthy, the pandemic showed why our  institutions, like the CDC, NIH, FDA, USDA and OHSA to name a few, were created in the first place. 

As far as jobs go, the American oligarchs may not care about people individually, but collectively American consumers account for over 70% of our GDP and so it’s in the American oligarchs, who own the majority of big businesses, which account for about 60% of American businesses, to keep consumers flush, spending and far away from the pitchforks and torches.

When the EPA tried to roll back the environmental retrofitting requirements of major power plants, there was a big push back because the utilities know that the growth of their energy sources (as well as job growth) is coming from renewables. We all grew up in this representative democracy and the rule of law and even the American oligarchs know that the rule of law is the only thing that keeps the big oligarch from gobbling up the smaller ones. 

With the rise of technology, the surveillance state was inevitable. I find it kind of fun that, based on my purchases, Amazon and Google make recommendations of what I would like to buy (although I sometimes think their algorithms smoke too much pot). I agree we do have to stay vigilant even from the powerfully liberal elitist as there are more democrat billionaires than Republican. We need effective privacy laws so we don’t go over to Orwell’s 1984 darkside. 

It never ceases to amaze me how well our founding fathers understood human nature and could look so far into the future and the key to our future is our kids, and their being educated in strong, well-funded public schools. With Trump weakening, if not eliminating, the Department of Education it will be up to parents, local communities and the States to make sure our kids can read, write and critically think. 

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