When Kinky Friedman ran for Texas governor in 2006, he had a compelling bumper-sticker slogan. “Kinky Friedman for Governor. Why the Hell Not?”
I found Kinky’s message persuasive and voted for him in the Texa primary.
I feel the same about President Trump’s campaign promise to shut down the U.S. Department of Education. Why the hell not?
Critics warn that closing DOE would mean the elimination of the Department’s Office of Civil Rights (OCR), which investigates discrimination claims against colleges and schools. Without OCR, they warn, we’re likely to see an uptick in race and sex discrimination and the harassment of gay and transgender students on college campuses.
I reject that argument.
OCR’s investigatory and enforcement authority has long been a threat hanging over U.S. higher education. Still, it hasn’t prevented the emergence of racism and antisemitism at the universities –particularly elite institutions like Harvard and Columbia. In fact, colleges are displaying more bigotry than at any time since the McCarthy era.
DOE’s defenders also point out that the Department needs to administer the federal student loan program and distribute college loans.
I reject that argument as well.
DOE has done a terrible job overseeing the student loan program. The higher education community has complained for over a decade that the federal student aid application form (commonly called the FAFSA) was unduly cumbersome and complicated for students and their parents to fill out. In 2020, Congress passed the FAFSA Simplification Act, directing DOE to create a simpler financial aid form.
DOE tackled the issue but didn’t release the newly designed form until December 30, 2023, three months after students needed it. Consequently, the college admission process was delayed all over the U.S., with the Government Accountability Office (GAO) finding that:
Delays, glitches, and other issues led to a 9% decline in submitted FAFSA applications among first-time applicants and an overall decline of about 432,000 applications as of the end of August [2024].
Of course one mistake, even a massive screwup like the FAFSA debacle, is not a justification by itself for closing a federal agency. Nevertheless, over the years, DOE has shown itself unable to properly monitor the venal for-profit college industry or to rein in college costs, which have gone up year after year partly due to massive infusions of federal cash.
I agree with the Trump administration that education is a state responsibility that should not be overregulated or controlled by the federal government.
If Trump manages to close down DOE, I don’t think its disappearance will adversely affect American education. Freed from onerous federal regulations, the colleges might even cut the cost of tuition.
Now, that would be a miracle.
