Mike Rounds and Donald Trump

Dear Commons Community,

Senator Mike Rounds, a South Dakota Republican, introduced a bill yesterday to eliminate the U.S. Department of Education, promoting a policy President-elect Donald Trump backed to close the agency if he regained the White House.

“We all know local control is best when it comes to education,” Rounds said in his statement. “Local school boards and state Departments of Education know best what their students need, not unelected bureaucrats in Washington, D.C.”

Rounds’ Returning Education to Our States Act proposes redistributing the work of the Education Department to other federal departments.  As reported by the Sioux Falls Argus Leader.

Why is Sen. Rounds bringing this bill?

Rounds’ introduction of the bill comes after President-elect Donald Trump vowed  to “close” the Education Department if he regained the White House.

“We want federal education dollars to follow the student, rather than propping up a bloated and radical bureaucracy in Washington, D.C.,” Trump said in October. “We want to close the federal Department of Education.”

In Rounds’ statement Thursday, he said he’s worked toward removing the federal agency for years.

The U.S. Department of Education was created in 1979 and began operating a year later. Today, it has many functions and provides billions of dollars to low-income public schools and billions more to help millions of Americans pay for college each year.

The South Dakota senator said the federal agency has “grown into an oversized bureaucracy.” Rounds also criticized the size of the agency’s budget and its per-student spending given students’ dropping standardized test scores.

Who will decide the fate of the bill?

Bills proposing to eliminate the Education Department have been introduced in previous sessions.

The Rounds bill is not expected to move forward this session while Democrats who oppose eliminating the agency still control the Senate and White House. It could be reintroduced next term but would require 60 votes to pass the Senate.

Dismantling the agency next term would likely require the support of Democrats, who vehemently oppose the idea. Some in the GOP have also said the Department of Education would be better left intact because it could play a pivotal role in enacting Trump’s policy agenda.

This was largely a symbolic gesture.   The bill has no chance of passing in this session of Congress and will not likely pass in the new session that begins in January 2025.

Tony

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