The problem

The Department of Education can be defined like this: a bloated and constitutionally unauthorized federal bureaucracy meddling in the affairs of state education.

Effective education is the mark of a successful society, but so is the ability to follow the most basic of rules - rules that governed the creation of our independent nation. The understanding that our politicians have of the Constitution is not much better than the understanding a fish has of walking on land.

The U.S. Constitution never, not once, mentions the word "education", or even "school", and for good reason. Our founding fathers wanted control of education closer to those being educated. The Department of Education consolidates education into a system fraught with extreme bureaucracy and wasteful spending. The federal government quite clearly has no constitutional role in education.

Neither political party seems equipped to tackle this issue head on. Reagan promised to abolish the Department of Education, but never did. The Republican Party platform, in the not-so-distant past, included a feigned promise of removing the federal government from education. Republicans, under George W. Bush, only seem focused on expanding federal control, not shrinking it.

Public schools that are run by state and local communities are not unconstitutional, but when the federal government provides funding, establishes guidelines or interacts with those schools in any way, they quickly become unconstitutional. The department costs the American people more than $60 billion annually.

The solution

The solution is simple: eliminate the Department of Education. Politicians on both sides of the aisle throw money at the DOE with reckless abandoned without any documented accountability of those funds of any kind. These are our tax dollars at work.

In the past, we were close. Ronald Reagan expressed interest in eliminating the DOE, but never acted. Other Republicans in the middle 1990's proposed an elimination of the DOE, but again never acted.

Here is what needs to be done:

• Eliminate the Department of Education.
• Establish unbiased, truthful textbooks.
• Provide parents with a choice of school systems for their children. School's competing for attendance increases standards, innovation and success for our nation's youngsters.
• Help fund schools with business and charity dollars.
• Initiate a tax cut in the amount of DOE expenditures (about $30 billion). Let parents decide how to educate their children.

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