Rep. Andy Ogles (R-TN) on Wednesday introduced legislation to codify President Donald Trump’s executive order shuttering the Department of Education.
President Trump’s executive action, signed last week, calls for the dismantling of the Department of Education, which was created during the administration of former President Jimmy Carter in 1979. However, an act of Congress is required to codify the department’s closure into law, so Rep. Ogles has introduced the Make Education Great Again Act to this end.
“This bill will ensure that Congress permits President Trump’s directive to close the Department and that any cuts made by the Secretary are authorized,” an emailed summary of the measure reads.
According to text of the proposed legislation, “Congress finds […] [that] Parents, as the primary educators of their children, should have meaningful choices in their children’s education, including public, charter, private, and homeschooling options.”
The bill further asserts that returning educational decision-making to the local level will improve results for communities across the country.
“Federal overreach in education policy has led to decreased local control and has not demonstrably improved academic outcomes for students,” the text reads.
The proposed legislation would allow the Secretary of Education to:
(1) [T]ake steps to ensure that Federal education funds empower parents and local communities rather 22 than Federal bureaucracies; (2) review and rescind, revise, or amend regulations, guidance documents, and policies that limit parental rights or State and local control over education; (3) promote policies that support school choice, including expanding access to education savings accounts, voucher programs, and charter schools;
(4) identify and reduce Federal administrative burdens on States, school districts, and educational institutions; (5) collaborate with States and localities to encourage high-quality education practices while respecting State and local decision-making authority; (6) enhance transparency regarding educational content, policies, and funding so that parents and communities can make informed decisions; and (7) ensure that Federal funds are used in a manner that supports student achievement rather than Federal mandates.
In a press release announcing the Make Education Great Again Act, Rep. Ogles said: “For far too long, the Department of Education has been poisoning the minds of students by injecting woke, anti-American curriculum into our schools.”
“This Department not only oversaw record drops in student literacy and educational excellence, but it waged war against a traditional liberal education rooted in the texts of the Western tradition, classical trivium, and our Biblical heritage,” he added.
“[F]ederalizing education reduced the community classroom to a Marxist breeding ground that influenced students to stray from the principles of their parents, rebel against society, and embrace postmodern nonsense,” the Tennessee congressman said. “I am proud to join President Trump in his historic effort to save the American classroom and return character-led excellence to our schools.”
Rep. Ogles teased his Make Education Great Again Act on March 21, just one day after President Trump officially mandated that the Secretary of Education “take all necessary steps to facilitate the closure of the Department of Education and return authority over education to the States and local communities.” The action promises to kick off a process of restoring educational standards across the country.
Speaking to Breitbart News reporter Katherine Hamilton on March 25, Education Secretary Linda McMahon said that she and the federal agency will be “working with Congress” from here on out.
“This department was established by statute, by law,” McMahon said. “A lot of the programs that are in place are in accordance with statutes, so we know that we’ll be operating in conjunction with Congress, fully abiding by all the terms of the law.”
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