Should the DOE exist?

The Valley Press recently published their editorial discrediting Betsy DeVoss for her management of the US Department of Education, calling it “wreckage.” One example was that DeVoss stated that certain duties were not the responsibility of the DOE.

The question is: should the DOE exist at all? It is not a new argument that the DOE is illegal because it is unconstitutional.

The enumerated, and limited, powers listed in the Constitution, give Congress the power to levy taxes to, “…provide for…the general welfare of the United States;”in the 10th Amendment it states that all other powers, “…are reserved to the States respectively…” Education is not a power listed in the Constitution.

Since President Carter signed into law the current DOE, the department, and Congress, have been creating administrative and statutory laws controlling education which are the powers of the states. One only needs to look at “No Child Left Behind” to see the far reaching control of the Feds.

While it might be for good intentions, the argument that the DOE is there to help disadvantage and minority communities, fails. There have been numerous studies showing that charter schools have significantly raised test scores for those students. It is difficult to show how the $68 billion budget of the DOE has; but the regulations of the DOE have cost local schools millions better spent on the students.

To justify the DOE because of the “General Welfare” clause, is a specious argument. Our Founders’ writings explain exactly what they meant by the words put into the Constitution:

“With respect to the two words general welfare, I have always regarded them as qualified by the detail of powers connected with them. To take them in a literal and unlimited sense would be a metamorphosis of the Constitution…” — James Madison

R.D. Smith

Lancaster