Trump the Dept of Education and States
I've been saying for over 40 years that the way most States fund their public schools, through property taxes, is wrong. It means rich school districts have nice schools and poor school districts barely have schools that function. States need to find a taxing mechanism so that all school districts get the same amount per pupil AND that amount needs to be enough that children get a decent basic education.
Those are the States responsibility and they need to step up. If that means they have to raise more taxes at a state level so be it. No slacking, these are your kids.
In many instances the US Dept of Education has been bailing out the states by providing Federal operating money direct to impoverished school districts. I heard on the radio that one district in Alabama got 46% of their budget from the Dept. of Education.
It should never be that way. Alabama needs to change their tax laws to properly fund their own schools. The rest of America should not have to bail Alabama out.
So is this one time where I agree with Trump? Maybe. States have gotten too used to relying on Federal handouts so they don't have to raise their own taxes. Trump is not wrong when he wants to devolve responsibility and tax burden onto the 50 states. And Trump spreading fear may be the shock the states need to get their act together.
In a perfect world, Federal taxes, and Federal assistance for day to day expenses would be reduced. At the same time each state would have to raise taxes to make up for the lost Federal dollars.
Nice theory. Which may be why the states need to be shocked into acting.
Somehow, I don't trust any of them. I think chaos will break out for education in some states and kids will pay the price.
As for the other things the US Dept of Ed does: school lunches etc. I don't know enough about those to make a judgement. Maybe those too should be transferred to state control. I don't want see kids going hungry. And all this tells me that there should have been a plan in place for all of this. We don't need to use a meat ax approach to running government.
The Department of Education is a target because education is supposed to be the responsibility of the states not the Fed which makes it low hanging fruit.
We'll see what happens. It probably won't be good.