How Studying The Greatest Speeches In American History Can Change You (And Your Children) Forever

We simply started with the words. For the foundation of all learning, all communication, and all thought, is words.

Rand Paul schools Margaret Brennan on Education Department's utility — or lack thereof



President Donald Trump signed an executive order Thursday to start the elimination of the Education Department, then indicated Friday that some of the department's remaining functions would immediately be offloaded onto the Small Business Administration and the Department of Health and Human Services.

These decisions have enraged various radical groups, including the teachers' unions that demanded the devastating closure of schools during the pandemic. The liberal media appears to be reflexively keen to join American Federation of Teachers boss Randi Weingarten and other leftists in defending the moribund institution, CBS News' Margaret Brennan included.

In conversation Sunday with Kentucky Sen. Rand Paul (R), Brennan concern-mongered about the closure of the Education Department, suggesting federal funding for schools in his state might be at risk. The senator questioned the talking head's presumptions, particularly about the value of those federal funds, and proposed a possible innovation, namely that an A-team of better-paid and higher-caliber teachers could teach American students en masse.

Rather than fight for a guarantee of more federal funding, Paul underscored that he would prefer to secure "a guarantee that my kids can read and write and do math."

'Why do two-thirds of the kids not read at proficiency?'

Brennan began by suggesting that federal funds for students in high-poverty Kentucky schools through Title I of the Elementary and Secondary Education Act might be threatened by the Education Department's closure.

"[Kentucky has] over 900 schools that have these Title I programs, which are low-income schools who need that federal subsidy to continue to operate. How are schools going to get that money if the president closes the Education Department?" asked Brennan.

Rather than identify a way of retaining such funding, Paul pointed out that this and other streams of federal funding aimed at improving student achievement don't actually appear to helping.

"I think the bigger question if we're sending all this money to Kentucky and all the other states [is] why are our scores abysmal?" said the Republican senator. "Why do two-thirds of the kids not read at proficiency? Why do two-thirds of the kids or more not have math proficiency?"

The Education Data Initiative indicated that as of February, federal, state, and local governments were blowing $857.2 billion on K-12 education annually. This works out to $17,277 per pupil. Federal tax dollars account for 13.6% of public K-12 funding nationwide.

In Kentucky, K-12 schools blow on average $15,337 per pupil, $3,195 of which is apparently from the federal government.

'The number of dollars has gone up exponentially, and our scores have gone the other way.'

According to the National Assessment of Educational Progress, only 31% of fourth-grade students and 30% of eighth-grade students nationwide performed at or above the "NAEP Proficient" level on the reading assessment in 2024.

Last year, only 39% of fourth-grade students and 28% of eighth-grade students were found to be proficient in math.

The 2019 NAEP assessment of fourth- and eighth-grade proficiency levels found that only 35% and 33% made the grade, respectively.

Scores were better in Paul's state but still far from stellar.

In Kentucky, standardized test results indicated last year that 47% of elementary students were proficient in reading, 42% of students were proficient in math, and 34% were proficient in science, reported the Louisville Courier Journal.

The assessment conducted in May found that at the middle school level, 45% of students were proficient in reading, 39% were proficient in math, and 22% were proficient in science. At the high school level, 45% were proficient in reading, 35% in math, and 6% in science.

"It's an utter failure," added Paul.

Brennan countered by intimating the problem might be that the programs receiving oodles of federal cash may have been poorly administered by regional administrators — prompting Paul to question the federal mediation of taxpayer funds intended for education in the first place.

"Look, the number of dollars has gone up exponentially, and our scores have gone the other way. So dollars are not proportional to educational success," said Paul.

"It has always been a position, a very mainstream Republican position, to have control of the schools by the states," said Paul. "Send the money back to the states, or better yet — never take it from the states. About half of our budget in Kentucky goes to education, and that's the same in a lot of states. I think we can handle it much better."

"When I talk to teachers, they chafe at the national mandates on testing they think are not appropriate for their kids," continued the senator. "They think they waste too much time teaching to national testing. The teachers would like more autonomy, and I think the teachers deserve more autonomy."

In addition to suggesting that states are better equipped to handle local education and that national educational mandates interfere with regional education efforts, Paul indicated that radical, outside-the-box thinking might be the way forward. He proposed, for instance, the rollout of online instruction by "an NBA or NFL of teachers — the most extraordinary teachers teach the entire country, if not the entire world."

This proposed A-team of teachers "might teach 10 million kids at a time because it would be presented to the internet with local teachers reinforcing the lessons," said Paul.

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Here's what Trump's win means for schooling in America — and the Education Department



President-elect Donald Trump has big plans for education in America.

When asked about what the Republican has in mind, Trump-Vance transition spokeswoman Karoline Leavitt told Time, "The American people re-elected President Trump by a resounding margin, giving him a mandate to implement the promises he made on the campaign trail. He will deliver."

If Trump delivers on his campaign promises and corresponding Agenda47 plan for education, then the Education Department as it now exists is toast, and most of its present responsibilities are likely headed back to the states.

Extra to hollowing out the Education Department, Trump has also promised universal school choice; protections for prayer in public schools; a prioritization of reading, writing, and arithmetic and an ejection of leftist propaganda; a switch from tenure to merit pay for teachers; and a federal reinforcement of parental rights.

In a September 2023 video outlining his ten principles for improving schools, Trump noted, "The United States spends more money on education than any other country in the world. And yet we get the worst outcomes. We are at the bottom of every list. In total, American society pours more than a trillion dollars a year into public education systems. But instead of being at the top of the list, we are literally right smack — guess what — at the bottom."

According to the Education Data Initiative, K-12 public schools blow through around $857.2 billion annually, with the federal government covering at least 13.6% with taxpayer funds. Costs have grown rapidly over the years.

The nationwide public K-12 annual spending per pupil in the 2011-2012 school year was $10,648. This year, the per-pupil cost for a substandard education was $17,280.

Despite the U.S. ranking fourth among Organization for Economic Co-operation and Development members for spending on elementary education, the quality of education leaves much to be desired.

Recent estimates from the National Literacy Institute indicated that roughly 40% of students across the nation cannot read at a basic level. The National Center for Education Statistics revealed that when compared to 80 other nations' education systems in 2022, the U.S. average math literacy score for 15-year-old students was lower than the average in 25 education systems. The NAEP also found that as of 2022, only 26% of eighth-grade public school students across the country were proficient in math.

A Pew Research Center survey revealed earlier this year that 51% of American adults figure the public K-12 education system is headed in the wrong direction. A separate survey of public school teachers found that 82% of respondents figured the state of education has worsened over the past five years.

'You can't do worse.'

"Rather than indoctrinating young people with inappropriate racial, sexual, and political material, which is what we're doing now, our schools must be totally refocused to prepare our children to succeed in the world of work, and in life and the world of keeping our country strong, so they can grow up to be happy, prosperous, and independent citizens," said Trump.

The once and future president indicated that in order to optimize education and schools in America, it is necessary to:

  • "respect the rights of parents to control the education of their children";
  • "empower parents and local school boards to hire and reward great principals and teachers, and also to fire the poor ones";
  • "ensure our classrooms are focused not on political indoctrination, but on teaching the knowledge and skills needed to succeed";
  • "teach students to love their country";
  • "support bringing back prayer to our schools";
  • institute "immediate expulsion for any student who harms a teacher or another student";
  • "ensure students have access to project-based learning experiences inside the classroom";
  • "strive to give all students access to internships and work experiences that can set them on a path to their first job"; and
  • "ensure that all schools provide excellent jobs and career counseling."

Trump also indicated that his administration would effectively "close" the Education Department, which has been a Cabinet-level agency since 1980, and send "all education and education work and needs back to the states."

"We want [the states] to run the education of our children, because they'll do a much better job of it," said Trump. "You can't do worse. We spend more money per pupil, by three times, than any other nation. And yet we're absolutely at the bottom. We're one of the worst. So you can't do worse. We're going to end education coming out of Washington D.C. We're going to close it up — all those buildings all over the place and yet people that in many cases hate our children. We're going to send it all back to the states."

'I figure we'll have like one person plus a secretary.'

Blaze News reached out to the Education Department but did not immediately receive a response.

Ted Mitchell, president of the American Council on Education, told Time, "It is entirely feasible to close down the Department of Education, but the functions of the Department of Education will need to continue."

With the Republican trifecta in Washington, D.C., Trump will likely be able to significantly reduce or possibly even cut funds for racist DEI and critical race theory programming.

Virginia Rep. Ben Cline (R) recently told Fox Business that it would be possible to slash trillions of dollars in government spending as Elon Musk, the potentially oncoming Department of Government Efficiency head, has proposed.

When asked where deep cuts could be made, Cline said, "Well, let's just look at the Department of Education and how billions of dollars stay in Washington, funding bureaucrats whose simple goal is to interfere in the decisions about educational choice at local and state levels."

In October, Trump signaled at a campaign rally in Milwaukee, Wisconsin, what his ideal Education Department would look like after he's done with it:

I figure we'll have, like, one person plus a secretary. You'll have a secretary to a secretary. We'll have one person plus a secretary, and all the person has to do is, "Are you teaching English? Are you teaching arithmetic? What are you doing? Reading, writing, and arithmetic. And are you not teaching woke?"

"All they're going to do is see that the basics are taken care of," added Trump.

Trump's proposal in some ways resembles the memorandum advanced in 1981 by President Ronald Reagan's Education Secretary Terrel H. Bell, which advocated for turning the department into a foundation tasked primarily with administering block grants, collecting information, and conducting research.

Education Weekly reported at the time that Bell's unrealized proposal suggested that most of the department's activities would ultimately be "transferred, terminated, or modified as new Administration policies are implemented." For example, the functions for the department's Office for Civil Rights could be moved to the Justice Department.

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