My Department of Education Epoch Times Op-Ed
The parallels between our K-12 education and COVID policies are extremely disturbing
If we intelligently work together — combining our resources — there are few limits as to what can be accomplished.
For example, a reader who has appreciated the sensibility of my recommendations about the US K-12 education system (and its extreme importance), took it upon himself to reach out to the Epoch Times. In his email to them, he strongly recommended that they publish on Op-Ed from me, on the topic of what is the best way forward with the federal Department of Education.
Within hours I received an email from the Op-Ed Editor, asking me to submit such an Op-Ed. I drafted up a new piece (combining many of the elements you have seen here before)… Continuing with the “Working together” theme I passed it by a competent editor: Jo Highet. She had a few constructive suggestions, which I implemented.
I submitted the revised draft to the Epoch Times editor the next day. A few hours later he wrote back “Wonderful!” I didn’t hear back any critiques from the editor and my submission was published on 3-24-25.
Below is an updated version of my position regarding what is in the best interest of students and our country regarding the federal Department of Education. Since I don’t have the word limits of the Op-Ed, I’ve expanded it a bit on a few matters…
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The US Department of Education: A MUCH Better Way Forward
I’d like to make a case about what to do with the Department of Education (DOEd) that you haven’t heard before.
Right now the DOEd is a very hot issue. People are lining up to kick it now that it’s down. Stepping back it’s easy to see that there is somewhat of a mob mentality going on: lots of heat with minimal light. Put another way: little Critical Thinking is in evidence.
We would do well to reflect on one of Eric Hoffer’s many good insights: “When hopes and dreams are loose in the streets, it is well for the timid to lock doors, shutter windows, and lie low until the wrath has passed. For there is often a monstrous incongruity between the hopes, however noble and tender, and the actions that follow them.”
Let’s try some logic and light to avoid the “monstrous incongruity” our headlong rush is all but guaranteed to bring about!
Point #1: I’m a supporter of President Trump. That said, we need to be clear about his objective here, as his education communications have not been optimized. (Considering that he has a few dozen major issues on his plate, this is entirely understandable!)
His actual education objective is to significantly improve the deplorable US K-12 education system. This is admirable and extremely important.
The reason that he is advocating eliminating DOEd is because he has been told that this is necessary to achieve his education objective. BUT IS IT?
Like 99% of the public, Trump is not an education expert, so he is relying on input from advisors.
This is just like he naturally relied heavily on advisors during the COVID-19 matter. These people may have credentials, but are they part of the problem, or part of the solution? [Here is a fine article about the over-reliance on “experts,” and how it can lead to Groupthink and very bad outcomes.]
IMO where Trump (and Biden) went wrong regarding COVID-19, was that they both listened to "experts" who had questionable expertise about the COVID-19 matter, who then also demonstrated no Critical Thinking skills regarding the consequences of the various policies they aggressively advocated — like children wearing masks all day, like closing many schools, etc.
As my Substack readers know I’m a scientist (physicist) and a national K-12 education expert. I proudly acknowledge that I’m an education outsider, as I have never been part of its bureaucracy.
On the DOEd issue, I appear to be playing the role that Dr. Scott Atlas did at the White House regarding COVID-19: an outlier. After reading this you decide whether my different perspective has merit. Right now we are going down the COVID-19 path…
Point #2: The anti-DOEd crowd generally falls into two camps, those who advocate: a) turning over essentially all K-12 federal education involvement to the States, or b) getting all forms of government out of the K-12 education process (i.e., parents doing everything).
Regretfully, despite “noble and tender” emotions, there are enormous liabilities for doing “a,” plus impossible realities for having most children doing “b.” These are very predictable outcomes when logic and light are limited…
So, smarty pants, what’s your answer?
Point #3: My recommendation is to Transform DOEd, not Terminate it.
But hasn’t that been done before? Absolutely not. There have been a variety of programs run by DOEd, but the Department itself has never been Transformed. Ever!
What does “Transform DOEd” mean?
DOEd would provide competent, constructive leadership to all forms of US K-12 education, from State Education Departments to Home Schoolers. That has never been done before!
Point #4: Like what? For example, as incomprehensible as it may seem, we have never come to a national agreement as to what the objectives of our K-12 education system are! To see for yourself, go check out the Mission Statements of each of the fifty State’s Education Departments. I did this, and there is zero commonality among all States. [For example, compare Georgia’s to North Carolina’s.] It makes no sense to have 50 different objectives for our K-12 education systems!
My suggestion is that the top national priorities should be that high school graduates are: 1) proficient in the 3Rs [Reading, ‘Riting & ‘Rithmatic], and 2) Critical Thinkers. [FYI: not a single State says that — or does that!]
Towards that end, DOEd should make clear that our K-12 emphasis should not be on teaching children What to think, but rather How to think.
Note: If DOEd publicized and promoted these simple points, it would be the most important improvement in US K-12 education in some hundred years — and would be 100% consistent with Trump’s real K-12 education goal.
Others may have even better suggestions, but in any case we MUST have a national agreement on education priorities. DOEd would then provide leadership to attain those goals. Such leadership has been almost non-existent to date. This has been an open invitation to the Left to fill this void, and they have. It’s like a banker going to lunch while leaving the vault open!
Point #5: But DOEd is a mess and is part of the problem! AGREED. That’s why it needs to be gutted and Transformed. For more details, I listed fifteen (15) common complaints about DOEd and my polite response to each.
Two major takeaways are: a) the States are at least 95% responsible for the poor performance of today’s students, and b) not a single State has an exemplary K-12 system.
What sense does it make to turn over the education of America’s children to 50 second-rate organizations? None!
OK, that puts things in a different perspective. Please tell me more.…
Point #6: There is another set of HUGE reasons why we should keep a Transformed DOEd. I outlined TEN (10) powerful examples of these here. All of these are based on the premises that DOEd has the money to do extensive helpful research on each of these topics, and that a Transformed DOEd would see that such research is competent.
These key topics include working with States to: a) agree on national K-12 goals, b) make schools safer, c) improve pedagogy, d) establish national Parental Rights, e) neutralize the ALA [and their opposition to age-appropriate books, etc.], f) reform the teacher certification process, g) redirect wayward teacher unions, h) oppose SEL and other attempts to secretly instill value systems into our children, i) give guidance regarding phones in class, and j) publicize guidelines about how to use Artificial Intelligence to optimize K-12 students’ education.
These are ENORMOUSLY important national K-12 education issues that will NOT be adequately addressed by turning over our children’s education to the States!!!
Consider that Linda McMahon has the authority to: a) fire anyone in DOEd, b) hire anyone for DOEd, c) write whatever mission statement for DOEd she chooses, d) dictate to DOEd employees what efforts they work on, e) give out discretionary money for studies to whoever she chooses, f) decide which States get any of the $80± Billion of annual DOEd discretionary funds, etc., etc. In other words, she has the power to single-handedly Transform DOEd so that our K-12 education process is significantly improved.
Point #7: By terminating DOEd we will have lost sight of Trump’s real education objective.
No matter which of the two popularly proposed post-DOEd paths we take, we will soon be “shocked” by a new reality: the education of our children will be worse than it is today! That is NOT “fixing the K-12 education system!”
This “monstrous incongruity” outcome is 100% predictable. However, it is also 100% preventable — if we employ real Critical Thinking (a scarce commodity).
Point #8: Worse than disappointing, this almost certain abject failure will likely lead to the demise of the American Experiment.
Why? Because some 4 MILLION students graduate from US high schools every year.
What we have been recently producing — due to States’ malfeasance, and if we kill DOEd it will be even worse — are students steeped in progressive ideology, who have been purposefully trained in K-12 to be the opposite of Critical Thinkers (conformists).
The killer of the American Experiment is that most of these students soon become voting citizens…
America can not survive an annual influx of 3± Million new propagandized, non-critical-thinking voters!
Transform NOT Terminate!
Our choice of a wrong COVID-19 path resulted in enormous negative effects on the US. Did we really learn anything from that?
Likewise, choosing to Terminate DOEd will result in enormous negative effects on the US. When will we learn?
Now that you have glimpsed the likely future, hopefully we can put emotions and illogicality aside, and get behind genuinely Transforming DOEd. When done right this will significantly reform the failed US K-12 education system.
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Due to word limitations in the Op-Ed, I was also not able to include this important part. Please do this TODAY! —
The best way for citizens to have a say about how to fix our K-12 education system is to directly phone both your House and Senate representatives. (If you don’t know their phones call House: 202-225–3121 and Senate: 202-224–3121. When the operator answers, just give them the name of your representative and ask to be connected.) When you are connected to each of your representatives’ office simply leave this message: “My name is ___. As a constituent I want the Department of Education to be Transformed not Terminated.”
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William T. Lynch. There is much that can be said. ... E.g., with regard to point 4, Georgia’s gaps can be compared with North Carolina since both take the same NAEP tests. That’s a starting point. But the critical issue that is missed is that the test scores must be properly evaluated. States and government refuse to use the correct dimensionless metrics. (They use point differences or “Pass%” differences.) Such metrics cannot measure absolute knowledge (which cannot be measured) but only relative knowledge (which can be quantitatively measured). All internal tests employed by GA or NC should be providing the same gaps as did their NAEP tests. (Tests do not change a testtaker’s actual knowledge, and there are known rules that apply to creating a “good” test.) And the overriding problem is the impossible burden on a teacher who, typically, can have a relative knowledge distribution of 30 (+/- two standard deviations). To provide significantly greater annual improvements for ALL students that knowledge factor of 30 in a single classroom must be reduced to 5. ALL students will have a greater core of knowledge when they complete high school than they do now only if, by grade 4 or 5, there are classrooms and teachers dedicated to the lower 20% in actual achievement, the middle 60%, and the highest 20%. It is the Principal’s (and parents’) job, as well as the teacher’s, to make sure that students with potential up their motivation to move into a higher bracket. And a significant spread in teachers’ salaries should be demanded, based not on student achievement, but upon enhancements. Metrics exist for evaluating what an individual teacher consistently achieves in the year-to-year enhancements by her/his students.... bandglynch@gmail.com
John, you often commit the pedagogical error of "arguing from authority." What you appear to miss is that bureaucracies always expand and as they expand, their effectiveness diminishes--an inverse relationship. If the DOEd continues to exist, it will eventually fall under the aegis of the Demoncrats and they will use it as they have always used it: to wit, to indoctrinate. Also, the closer governance is to "home," the more effective it will be. Therefore, responsibility for education should be "reserved to the states," per the Tenth Amendment, where it lay prior to the DOEd's creation in 1980...IOW, when nearly all high school graduates were functionally literate in both reading and math. As for making a comparison between COVID policies and eliminating the DOEd, I submit that is a false analogy. Respectfully, John Rosemond (johnrosemond.com)