The upside down wedding cake of education

 

 

"Question: What does our education system and an upside down wedding cake have in common? Answer: Just about everything!"

Well I might as well stay on my theme from this morning. Over the years, I have been amazed by the number of people I have talked to that don't know how many layers of bureaucratic crap we have in our education system. It is staggering. As we attempt to pare down the size of all our government(s), education is always a tempting and low fruit on the tree.

I know this will tick some people off. Public education is a pet rock to many on the left. They will defend it to the death, regardless of how bad the results are. And the results are bad in many schools. The amazing thing is this - how can the results be this bad when there is so much "help", and money, being poured into the schools. And just how much money is spent on public education? Buckle up. I will give you just a taste.

US Department of Education - This is the top layer (and the big one) of the wedding cake. Arnie Duncan is the Secretary of this gargantuan cesspool. Established in 1979 (please don't ask me why), it is puny compared to other cabinet departments. Even so, it employs 5,000 people and has an annual budget of about $70B. In violation of the 10th Amendment (my opinion), their job is to tell the states how to do their own public education.

Minnesota Department of Education -  This is the next layer down on the wedding cake. Not nearly as big as the top layer, it is still big. Minnesota spends about 30% of its budget on K-12 public education. That is about double what our surrounding states spend. 30% of a $26B budget (state dollars only in FY14 dollars), that would amount to almost $8B. That is a huge number for nothing but an oversight department.

District Education - This is the bottom layer of the cake, and by far the smallest. This is really where the rubber meets the road. Where the teaching is done. The school districts should be autonomous. The residents of the district, by the election of their local school board, should determine how their children are taught. Would it fix the malaise in education if we got rid of the top two layers of the wedding cake? Possibly. However, my opinion is this - maybe not fix it, but certainly improve it. PLUS - make the size of the Federal and state governments smaller.

During the Reagan Administration, the Gipper wanted to get rid of the Department of Education (as well as a few others). Even back then, when this department was less than ten years old, he saw it was as waste. But we kept it as the President did not have the backing in Congress to eliminate it. And since then, we have spent hundreds of billions of dollars on it. During the past five fiscal years alone (including this one), we have spent or will spend around $350B. Think of how much money we could have saved if the Gipper had been successful in getting rid of this mess. 

So the next time the President, our Governor, or any of their cronies on the Left tell us we need more money for education, please try not to laugh out loud. On second thought, forget I said that. Please do laugh out loud, and do it for a long, long time.