SIOUX FALLS, S.D. (KELO) — Republican U.S. Senator Mike Rounds is hoping the “Returning Education to Our States Act,” will gain more traction in the new legislative session. He also hopes the White House will get on board and support his plan. It would dismantle the department and redistribute funds to other federal agencies.
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For example, the Department of Health and Human Services would handle special needs programs while the Department of Treasury would oversee student loans and grants. Rounds believes his bill would save more than 2 billion dollars a year in red tape on the federal level.
“For states, it would mean more block grant money with less strings attached coming from the federal government,” said Rounds.
However, there is opposition to the dismantling the Education Department, like this protest at U.C Berkley in California.
“We are here to have our voices heard and to defend the future of public education.” said a student leader.
The South Dakota Education Association told us they believe spreading education programs to other departments will expose students to more bureaucracy because they will have to deal with federal agencies that don’t prioritize education.
The U.S. Department of Education was created in 1980 by President Jimmy Carter.
“And I believe that in the future, we can have a much more responsive federal government,” said President Carter in 1980.
The idea was to make sure education remained a federal priority. However Rounds says test scores have not improved since 1980 and he believes Washington bureaucrats don’t understand education needs in smaller states.
“When I was working as the Governor of South Dakota we were frustrated by the amount of red tape that it took in order to get programs funded from the Department of Education coming out of Washington DC. One size fits all does not work well in South Dakota.” 2:25
Rounds says applying for student loans and grants has been a nightmare for some families. He expects that will change under the “Returning Education to Our States Act.”
