The left, as they they are wont to do, are up in arms about something called Project 2025. This is a 900-page policy statement created by dozens of people from the conservative Heritage Foundation.
Understand that almost nobody has read this document and yet people sure have opinions about it. It sure does sound scary, right? They have tried to tie the document to President Donald Trump even though he had nothing to do with its creation nor has he advocated for advancing the document in toto when he wins the election.
However one thing really seems to get the chattering class upset and that’s call to eliminate the Department of Education. This department will spend approximately $1 trillion over the next 10 years and it will educate not one person. If you talk to 99% of people they would tell you they haven’t the vaguest clue what this department does. So allow me to educate you. What this department does is launder $90 billion a year through the D.C. bureaucracy and after they take their hefty cut, they send it out to various educational entities to do God knows what. Again, the department does not educate one person! Instead, they have bureaucrats in D.C. making rules about how we in Santa Clarita should educate our children.
You might say, “But Brian, look at the education improvements made because of the Department since its creation in the 1970s.” It is a fact that educational outcomes have gotten worse since the creation of this department. There are a lot of reasons for declining education outcomes, like public sector unions, but I digress. What it really means is that it serves no benefit other than to employ 4,500 bureaucrats. More often than not, the department actually hinders better educational outcomes with its arcane rules and diktats.
I realize that so many of you would chop your hand off before advocating that we get rid of any federal department no matter how worthless. However, given that we are currently $35 trillion in debt with no end in sight, would it not make sense to look for areas that we could cut spending? Nobody would suffer if the department went away, even the 4,500 employees who could be transferred to other federal departments.
This year we’re going to spend $1 trillion in interest! That is money that isn’t helping anyone other than countries who own our debt. If we can’t get rid of the Department of Education, is there anything we can cut? Anything?
Brian Richards
Stevenson Ranch
