The Department of Education: Another GOP Scapegoat.

As the GOP candidates continue to battle it out across the Nation in debates covering a myriad of subjects, one particular proposal caught my attention. 

The Department of Education has been a target for the GOP ever since the '80s when it was established.  Republican's argue that the DOE, like any other centralized organization, is an ineffective bureaucracy that is a waist of tax dollars and should be defunded.  I, along with many others disagree with this and find it interesting how eager Conservatives are to dismantle an organization established to promote and standardize education.

According to the Department of Education's mission statement: "[Our] mission is to promote student achievement and preparation for global competitiveness by fostering educational excellence and ensuring equal access."  Under the Department of Education Organization Act, the DOE is responsible for:

Strengthen the Federal commitment to assuring access to equal educational opportunity for every individual; 

Supplement and complement the efforts of states, the local school systems and other instrumentalities of the states, the private sector, public and private nonprofit educational research institutions, community-based organizations, parents, and students to improve the quality of education; 

Encourage the increased involvement of the public, parents, and students in Federal education programs; 

Promote improvements in the quality and usefulness of education through Federally supported research, evaluation, and sharing of information; 

Improve the coordination of Federal education programs; 

Improve the management of Federal education activities; and 

Increase the accountability of Federal education programs to the President, the Congress, and the public.

If we were to dismantle the DOE, who will become responsible for the benefits in which our ISDs have become accustom to?  The State?  Texas has shown that education has the least priority, unless of course you're an illegal alien.  As for the rest of us, home schooling may be a forseeable future.

Governor Rick Perry's leadership aided in the refusal of Race to the Top funds from the Obama administration.  His failure to participate in the federal program set the stage for cuts in the State's school budget causing school closures, which increased unemployment, and forced the remaining teachers- who's job is already demanding enough, into oversized classes to bear the burden; all-the-while, a purposed $250 million gamble for the Formula One track being built in Austin displayed Perry's, along with legislature's, true priorities.  Forgive me for asking, but don't the people come first?  I thought Texas was a State, not a business...?

The Department of Education is not the culprit of our Nation's failing education system.  It's the ignorance of some of our economic conservative leaders who fail to acknowledge the importance of education at all ages as a gateway for success.  Our economic woes will only continue as a State and Nation if we neglect our responsibility to educate Americans.  If we fail to empower our own, we will lose the very power that makes us the greatest Nation on Earth.