Jay Weber Show transcript 3-13-25
We’ve talked about this: when it comes to -legitimately- killing off the department of education- virtually every move that needs to be made to really eliminate this department- needs to be done by congress.
The dept of education was created by Jimmy Carter and a congress back in 1980...and has become a jumbled thicket of additional congressional actions and nonsense-
And so, pulling apart that thicket is going to take several congressional actions.
However.
However-
A president like Trump and his team could try to do things like- cut the dept’s staffers to insanely low levels.... And....shift certain decisions and powers away from the education department. Just give those to other agencies. Yep.
But Donald trump cannot just sign an executive order and declare the department ‘closed’.
So, what did his new education sect, Linda McMahon, do yesterday?
She laid off nearly half of the dept of education’s federal workforce.
Fantastic.
This is one step an executive can take. So, she and Trump did it.
And this is important-because democrats-including our own governor- Tony Evers- have been out on social media lying about this.
Evers posted on X:
None of that is true. Gov Evers is simply lying. No funding is being cut. No programs are in danger. No special ed funding is being eliminated. It’s all just scary tactics-because that’s all democrats have-anymore.
President Trump was asked about this yesterday, as he and the Irish prime minister met with reporters, and he said- of course I feel bad about the mass layoffs. We don’t like to see people out of work-
Trump went on to say- look- our plan is to return control of education back to the state and local entities-where it should be. And as someone who has advocated for killing off the fed education department for over 20 years- I love to this move-and no-
No- your child’s education is not going to be harmed. Not even if you have a special needs child.
I understand that the parents of those kids are worried and worked up about this-because such a big chunk of any district’s special needs funding and guidelines come from the federal level-but none of the 80-billion dollars that the education dept doles out every year is going to be cut. If nothing else- dispersant of it should become ‘more efficient’ and your local special ed teachers should be able to be more flexible when it comes to meeting the needs of your child.
And hey- there might even be more of it: if trump can eliminate a dept that is costing taxpayers 270-billion dollars a year- maybe some of that money can be used to boost direct funding payments to the schools. I know it’s hard-but don’t fall for the scary tactics.
Mary Katherine Ham was on Bret Beier’s show yesterday....
Kathrine Ham is dead on the few ‘worthy’ things the dept of education might do in the way of measuring student success can-and should-be kept- and can easily be a small agency office in some different department.
But this entire department is otherwise useless and its very existence-is- is- harming our ability to reform our schools...boost your child’s education...and put higher standards in place for our children and our country.
If the democrat, unionist, ‘federal’ reading and math standards have been set at ‘two clicks’ above moron... We can turn those decisions over to the states- whose leaders and parents will almost certainly raise them up to ‘four clicks above moron’...or....’maybe even way up to ‘smart’.
But right now, our national standards are set pathetically low-
And still!Most states aren’t reaching them- due to the low expectations and union-driven focus in our public schools.And all this carter-era dept of education has allowed the left to do is ‘bake in the suck’...by ‘baking in the blanket union control’.
And yes, Trump’s moves here will be challenged in court- but so what? - all the rest of them are, too.
So, basically, non-essential’ staff make up about half of the people working in the dept of education. How is that not? - an indictment of today’s bloated, useless government.
As trump said yesterday: at least some of these people being terminated never showed up for work. Doge couldn’t find half of them.
It makes you wonder how many ‘phantom people’ were fired yesterday...versus how many were ‘real’...and doing agency work....in return for pay and benefits.
I know trump and musk -have got to be- engaging in some level of hyperbole or exaggeration here- but it would boost their cause if they offered some specifics. Tell us: there were at least 50 people out of the 13 hundred who we couldn’t even track down. Never responded to calls or emails.We just hope they know-they’ve been fired.
These specifics and anecdotes would help bring the level of waste and apathy in our federal government into better focus for the American people-who are being asked to support all these moves and cuts.
Folks removing layers of federal bureaucrats from the education equation- legitimately- gives more power and decision-making back to state and local officials-and parents- and will improve your child’s education.
It will also improve choices for parents and boost student achievement. I will cut off my left foot if trump succeeds here- and then-ten years from now- student test scores are lower.
It won’t happen because the bureaucratic stagnation and rot-is- the main problem with our educational system today.
Consider the covid shutdowns and how devastating they were to our student test scores-and-graduation rates. Then look at the public and private school districts whose leaders chose to buck the unions and shut-down nazis.
Their student test scores, and graduation rates didn’t suffer.
As crummy as the NY school system is-their rate of ‘chronically absent students went from 24 percent- or one-in-four kids, pre-covid....to something around 35 or 38 percent now. We’re five years past covid-and NY’s school leaders can’t get two-out of three- kids to school every day? Or nearly so?
Are they even trying?
I bet not.
MPS’s graduation rates are about 50 percent every year. Past superintendents have cheered when they’ve gotten as high as 54 or 56 percent.
We are cheering when nearly half of our seniors fail to get a high school diploma.
And is this the system Tony Evers and our so-called ‘educators’ want to protect?
Come on.
In 2022-america’s math scores were the lowest ever measured by the international student assessment group that does them.
Smack-dab in the middle of the Biden era- international educators announced America’s math scores are the worst ever measured.
The news went out globally: America’s kids are dummies.
Is this the educational system you want to defend?
Do you think Wisconsin’s governor should be defending it? And lying -fiercely and daily- about the people who are trying to change things?
Because he was again, yesterday.
Donald Trump isn’t abandoning America’s schools. Democrats like tony Evers abandoned them -long ago- in favor of their own political and personal interests.
And I don’t say this lightly: Gov Evers is a disgrace for spreading such scare tactics and falsehoods now.
photo credit: Getty Images
audio version of the segment here > The days of the US Department of Education is coming to an end