Program And Office Prioritization Within The Department Of Education

NEEDED REFORMS

Federal intervention in education has failed to promote student achievement.

After trillions spent since 1965 on the collective programs now housed within the walls of the department, student academic outcomes remain stagnant. On the main National Assessment of Educational Progress (NAEP), reading out- comes on the 2022 administration have remained unchanged over the past 30 years. Declines in math performance are even more concerning than students’ lack of progress on reading outcomes. Fourth- and eighth-grade math scores saw the largest decline since the assessments were first administered in 1990. Average fourth-grade math scores declined five points, and average eighth-grade math scores declined eight points. Just one-third of eighth graders nationally are proficient in reading and math. Just 27 percent of eighth graders were pro- ficient in math in 2022, and just 31 percent of eighth graders scored proficient in reading in 2022.

The NAEP Long-term Trend Assessment shows academic stagnation since the 1970s, with particular stagnation in the reading scores of 13-year-old students since 1971, when the assessment was first administered. Math scores, though modestly improved, are still lackluster.

Additionally, the department has created a “shadow” department of education operating in states across the country. Federal mandates, programs, and proclama- tions have spurred a hiring spree among state education agencies, with more than 48,000 employees currently on staff in state agencies across the country. Those employees are more than 10 times the number of employees (4,400)10 at the federal Department of Education, and their jobs largely entail reporting back to Washing- ton. Research conducted by The Heritage Foundation’s Jonathan Butcher finds that the federal government funds 41 percent of the salary costs of state educa- tion agencies.11

CHART 1

Trends in Fourth- and Eighth-Grade Reading EIGHTH-GRADE READING, AVERAGE SCORES 270 265 263 260  255 260 1992 1994 1998 ’02 ’03 2005 2007 2009 2011 2013 2015 2017 2019 2022 FOURTH-GRADE READING, AVERAGE SCORES 225 220 220 217 215 210 1992 1994 1998 2000 ’02 ’03 2005 2007 2009 2011 2013 2015 2017 2019 2022

SOURCES: The Nation’s Report Card, “National Average Scores,” Grade 4, https://www.nationsreportcard.gov/ reading/nation/scores/?grade=4 (accessed March 17, 2023), and The Nation’s Report Card, “National Average Scores,” Grade 8, https://www.nationsreportcard.gov/reading/nation/scores/?grade=4 (accessed March 17, 2023).

PROGRAM AND OFFICE PRIORITIZATION WITHIN THE DEPARTMENT

Office of Elementary and Secondary Education (OESE) The OESE is comprised of 36 programs, ranging from Title I, Part A, of the Elementary and Secondary Education Act and Impact Aid, to programs for Native American students and the D.C. Opportunity Scholarship Program.

Reduce the number of programs managed by OESE, and transfer some remaining programs to other federal agencies.

Transfer Title I, Part A, which provides federal funding for lower- income school districts, to the Department of Health and Human Services, specifically the Administration for Children and Families. It should be administered as a no-strings-attached formula block grant.

This bloat has persisted for decades. In 1998, a commission led by Repre- sentative Pete Hoekstra released a critical report based on extensive fieldwork, interviews, and analysis of the Department of Education. The report, Education at a Crossroads: What Works and What’s Wasted in Education Today, detailed the suffocating bureaucratic red tape Carter’s agency had wrapped around states.12 The commission estimated that states completed nearly 50 million hours of paperwork just to get their federal education spending, which at that time, they estimated, resulted in just 65 cents to 70 cents of each federal taxpayer dollar making its way to the classroom. The situation has only worsened since the Hoekstra report. More recent evidence of Washington’s bureaucratic paperwork burden can be found in the growing number of non-teaching staff in public schools across the country, which doubled relative to growth in student enrollment from 1992 to 2015.

The labyrinthian nature of federal education programs—convoluted funding formulas, competitive grant applications, reporting requirements, etc.—has likely contributed to the considerable bureaucratic bloat in state and local school districts across the country and is one of the key areas of needed reform. Streamlining exist- ing programs and funding so that dollars are sent to states through straightforward per-pupil allocations or in the form of grants that states can put toward any lawful edu- cation purpose under state law would bring a needed easing of the federal compliance burden. The federal government should confine its involvement in education policy to that of a statistics-gathering agency that disseminates information to the states. To improve educational opportunities for all Americans, the next Administra- tion should work with Congress to pass a Department of Education Reorganization Act to reform, eliminate, or move the department’s programs and offices to appro- priate agencies. The following is an overview of what should happen within each of the offices and to each of the programs currently operated by the department.

Restore revenue responsibility for Title I funding to the states over a 10-year period.

OESE also currently manages the federal Impact Aid program, which provides fund- ing to school districts to compensate for reductions in property tax revenue due to the presence of federal property (such as that associated with a military base or tribal lands).

Eliminate Impact Aid not tied to students. Move student-driven Impact Aid programs to the Department of Defense Education Authority (DoDEA) or the Department of Interior’s Bureau of Indian Education. Transfer all Indian education programs to the Bureau of Indian Education.

The D.C. Opportunity Scholarship Program, which provides vouchers to low-income children living in the nation’s capital—appropriate as D.C. is under the jurisdiction of Congress—should be expanded into a universal program, formula-funded, and moved to the Department of Health and Human Services.

All other programs at OESE should be block-granted or eliminated. Office of Career, Technical, and Adult Education

Transfer the Office of Career, Technical, and Adult Education’s few programs to the Department of Labor, but Move the Tribally Controlled Postsecondary Career and Technical Education Program to the Bureau of Indian Education. Office of Special Education and Rehabilitative Services (OSERS) The Office of Special Education and Rehabilitative Services (OSERS) houses nearly two dozen programs, ranging from funding for the Individuals with Dis- abilities Education Act (IDEA) and the National Technical Institute for the Deaf to Special Olympics Funding and the American Printing House for the Blind.

Most IDEA funding should be converted into a no-strings formula block grant targeted at students with disabilities and distributed directly to local education agencies by Health and Human Service’s Administration for Community Living.

Transfer the Vocational Rehabilitation Grants for Native American students to the Bureau of Indian Education. Phase out earmarks for a variety of special institutions, as originally envisioned.

To the extent that OSERS supports federal efforts to enforce our laws against discrimination of individuals with disabilities, those assets should be moved to the Department of Justice (DOJ) along with the Office for Civil Rights (OCR).

Office for Postsecondary Education (OPE)

The next Administration should work with Congress to eliminate or move OPE programs to ETA at the Department of Labor. Funding to institutions should be block-granted and narrowed to Historically Black Colleges and Universities (HBCUs) and tribally controlled colleges.

Institute of Education Sciences (IES)

Move ED’s statistical office, the National Commission for Education Statistics (NCES), to the Department of Commerce’s Census Bureau. If Congress believes the federal government can play a valuable research role, those research centers can be moved to the National Science Foundation. If Congress decides to maintain IES as an independent agency, it needs to address major governance and management issues that keep it from being a productive contributor to the knowledge base related to teaching and learning.

Office of Federal Student Aid (FSA)

The next Administration should completely reverse the student loan federalization of 2010 and work with Congress to spin off FSA and its student loan obligations to a new government corporation with professional governance and management. With a statutory charge that it preserve the federal student loan portfolio for the benefit of the taxpayers and students, this new entity would be (1) profession- ally governed by an agency head and board of trustees appointed by the President

Move programs deemed important to our national security interests to the Department of State.

CHART 2 Trends in Fourth- and Eighth-Grade Mathematics EIGHTH-GRADE MATH, AVERAGE SCORES 300 290 280 282 274 270  260 1990 1992 1996 2000 2003 2005 2007 2009 2011 2013 2015 2017 2019 2022 FOURTH-GRADE MATH, AVERAGE SCORES 250 240 241 236 230 220 210 1990 1992 1996 2000 2003 2005 2007 2009 2011 2013 2015 2017 2019 2022

SOURCES: The Nation’s Report Card, “National Average Scores,” Grade 4, https://www.nationsreportcard.gov/ mathematics/nation/scores/?grade=4 (accessed March 17, 2023), and The Nation’s Report Card, “National Average Scores,” Grade 8, https://www.nationsreportcard.gov/mathematics/nation/scores/?grade=4 (accessed March 17, 2023).

CHART 3 Long-Term Trends for Nine– and 13–Year-Olds READING, AVERAGE SCORES 300 280 13–YEAR-OLDS 260 263260 221220 240 NINE–YEAR-OLDS 220 200 1971 1975 1980 1984 ’88 ’90 ’92 ’94 ’96 1999 2004 2008 2012 2020  MATH, AVERAGE SCORES 300 13–YEAR-OLDS 285 280 280 260 NINE–YEAR-OLDS 240 244 241 220 200 1978 1982 1986 ’90 ’92 ’94 ’96 1999 2004 2008 2012 2020

SOURCE: The Nation’s Report Card, “NAEP Data Explorer,” https://www.eia.gov/dnav/pet/hist/LeafHandler.ashx ? n=PET&s=WCSSTUS1&f=W (accessed March 17, 2023).

with the advice and consent of the Senate; (2) funded with annual appropriations from Congress; and (3) operated by professional managers. Federal loans would be assigned directly to the Treasury Department, which would manage collections and defaults. The new federal student loan authority would manage the loan port- folio, handle borrower relations, administer loan applications and disbursements, monitor institutional participation and accountability issues, and issue regulations. Office for Civil Rights (OCR) l OCR should move to the Department of Justice. The federal government has an essential responsibility to enforce civil rights protections, but Washington should do so through the Department of Justice and federal courts. The OCR at DOJ should be able to enforce only through litigation.