Willie R. Tubbs, FISM News
Rep. Thomas Massie (R-Ky.) has not advocated for a national divorce, but he certainly shares Georgia Republican Rep. Marjorie Taylor Greene’s desire to shrink the federal government by at least one rather large department.
This week, as media pundits and politicians wrestled with Greene’s recommendation that the nation subdivide itself into blue and red affinity states, Massie reminded the nation that for several years he has sought to end the Department of Education.
“I attended public school from the first grade until my senior year of high school, as did my wife and our four children,” Massie tweeted late last week. “I am pro-education. That’s why I introduced HR 899, a bill to eliminate the US Department of Education. Get the Feds out of our classrooms.”
I attended public school from the first grade until my senior year of high school, as did my wife and our four children.
I am pro-education.
That’s why I introduced HR 899, a bill to eliminate the US Department of Education.
Get the Feds out of our classrooms.
— Thomas Massie (@RepThomasMassie) February 23, 2023
HR 899 is nothing if not concise and requires little in the way of expert analysis. Massie’s bill reads, in its entirety, “The Department of Education shall terminate on December 31, 2023.”
Massie made a similar effort last Congress and failed. This time, Massie and his 17 co-sponsors likely have the votes to get the bill to the Senate, but it will almost certainly proceed no further.
Ultimately, this will stand as the latest effort by Republicans to force Democrats and President Joe Biden to show their true leanings on various socio-political matters.
Conservatives are banking that Biden will throw his support behind the Department of Education, which will allow Republicans to label the president as supportive of an expensive department that has achieved little.
“Bureaucrats in Washington should not be in charge of our children’s intellectual development,” Massie tweeted Thursday.
President Joe Biden has made no secret of his desire to go in precisely the opposite direction as Massie recommends.
According to the Department of Education, last year the federal government appropriated $76.4 billion to the department. Biden has requested $88.3 billion in discretionary spending for 2023.
The money, according to a presentation from the department, will be used to recruit educators and increase services aimed at “meeting the social, emotional, mental health, and academic needs” of students.
Republicans have long contended that the Department of Education has had a negative effect on the nation’s education systems. In 2019, the Federalist, citing a Government Accountability Office study, labeled the department a failure.