Rand Paul wants to close the Education Department. Here's how that would work.
Sen. Rand Paul, now running for president, wants to get rid of the US Education Department — a popular idea in the Republican Party that has now been proposed at least twice in this primary election. In February, Politico reported that Sen. Marco Rubio told donors that he too would like to shut the department down for good.
Calls to get rid of federal agencies can be a feature of Republican presidential primaries. But politicians don't always explain what they mean when they say they want to get rid of a Cabinet-level department.
It's a big deal, one that would entail figuring out what to do with billions of dollars in federal grants and other initiatives. And, for the Department of Education, what it can mean in practice ranges from a truly drastic change to a mostly cosmetic one.
Who wants to get rid of the Education Department
Iowa Sen. Joni Ernst is one Republican who's called for getting rid of the Education Department. (Tom Williams/CQ-Roll Call Group via Getty Images)
The Education Department has been on Republican hit lists since it was created in 1979. President Ronald Reagan campaigned on getting rid of it in 1980 and tried to get kill it off while he was in office, but didn't succeed. Instead, in 1983, a landmark federal report, A Nation At Risk, argued mediocre education was endangering the United States. That report made improving education a national priority, and the argument that there should be no federal role receded for more than a decade.
But by 1996, Bob Dole was again arguing in favor of eliminating the Education Department during his presidential campaign. George W. Bush, who expanded the federal role in education, had to fight to get eliminating the department out of the Republican Party platform in 2000. In the 2012 primaries, many candidates — most notably Rick Perry — argued that the department should be abolished.
The idea isn't limited to presidential races, either. In the 2014 Senate race, now-Sen. Joni Ernstcalled for getting rid of the department, as did now-Sen. David Perdue, from Georgia.
What the Education Department does
Education Secretary Arne Duncan in 2010. (Ryan Kelly/CQ-Roll Call via Getty Images)
The Education Department is basically a giant grant-making agency. About 95 percent of the department's $67.3 billion budget is devoted to grant-making, according to the Congressional Budget Office.
The department gives out K-12 grants to states for educating low-income children and children with disabilities and for training teachers. It makes K-12 grants to school districts for children who live on military bases and other federal land. Those federal funds make up about 12 percent of all education spending.
In higher education, the department doesn't give out massive grants but individual vouchers to students with financial need.
The Education Department also makes all new federal student loans and, through contracts with private companies, ensuring those loans are serviced and paid back.
States, districts, schools, and colleges that get federal money have to follow federal regulations. The Education Department's Office for Civil Rights, in the news most often lately for investigating how colleges handle sexual harassment and assault, is responsible for ensuring that programs that receive federal funds don't discriminate based on gender or race.
How getting rid of the Education Department might work
It's not this simple. (Shutterstock)
Getting rid of the Education Department means different things. There are several options, ranging from extraordinary drastic to mostly cosmetic.
The "throw it all out" option: Not just abolishing the Education Department as a cabinet agency, but getting the federal government out of education entirely. The Cato Institute, a libertarian think tank, wants to get rid of the Education Department and all of its programs, including federal aid for college. Paul introduced a bill in 2011 that approached this option. It would have cut the department's budget 83 percent and eliminating everything except for the Pell Grant program for college students.
The block grant option: In 2011, Rick Perry proposed turning federal aid for K-12 into a block grant for states, essentially letting states have the federal money without any strings attached. That would eliminate the Education Department's oversight and control while maintaining at least some of the federal funding.
The 'foundation' option: Reagan's first Education Secretary, who was meant to preside over the department's dismantling, proposed turning it into a grantmaking agency like the National Science Foundation, according to Education Week's 2010 history of attempts to get rid of the Education Department. It's not clear what exactly that would have looked like — Congress didn't support the proposal and Reagan himself eventually Rand Paul wants to close the Education Department. Here's how that would work. - Vox: