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The copious tears of U.S. Representative Jahana Hayes may be premature.
Hayes, describing herself “a product of Connecticut’s public education system,” told CTMirror – the story in the publication has no personal byline -- “’Angry wasn’t the word,’ she said, to describe her feelings toward what she and many lawmakers across the country are calling an attack on public education. ‘I am not going to sit by and let us go back to a time where special education students were placed in the basement and not allowed to be educated alongside their non-disabled peers. I am not going to go back to a time where students came to school and didn’t get a hot meal or a book or computer or broadband — or all the things they needed to learn,” she said, her voice cracking, at a news conference in Hartford Monday.”
These retrenchments will occur if, Hayes supposes, the U.S. Department of Education is eliminated altogether, its functions being transferred to the Connecticut public education system.
The U.S. Department of Education (ED) was instituted by the late President Jimmy Carter in 1979 by executive order. In 1980, Congress established the U.S. Department of Education through the Department of Education Organization Act (Public Law 96-88 of October 1979). Under the statute, according to ED’s website, the mission of the department is to: “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.”
Whether or not the ED has been faithful to its mission, or whether the ED has misunderstood its mission has been for some time a matter of public debate. There are few if any educators certified to teach in Connecticut serving as administrators in the U.S Department of Education. The bulk of ED department employees are administrative bureaucrats.
It is true that the Trump administration is seeking the abolition of the federal Department of Education, but necessary administrative functions performed by the department – student loans, for instance -- are transferable either to other more efficient federal departments less entangled with public employee unions and neo-progressive doctrine or to the states. The notion that the Trump administration wants to abolish “education” rather than an unwieldy administrative apparatus is pure propaganda. Education is and should remain a state function.
There is no reason why Connecticut, among the richest states, would be unable, if it so chose, to pick up the tab for “special education students,” a true pedagogical function. Hayes need not “sit by and let us go back to a time where special education students were placed in the basement and not allowed to be educated alongside their non-disabled peers.” With Hayes’ encouragement, these functions may easily be financed by solicitous Democrat politicians at the state level.
CTMirror tells us that “Connecticut received about $553 million in federal funding for education during the 2023-2024 school year, according to the School and State Finance Project. About half of that funding goes toward Title I and special education through the Individuals with Disabilities Education Act, also known as IDEA. Only 7% of the state’s total education funding comes from the federal government.”
U.S. Senator Dick Blumenthal’s broadside eerily patterns that of Hayes. “I will promise you,” Blumenthal told reporters assembled at a Monday news conference, “we will deny them the votes to destroy our department. I promise you, Democrats will stand against this effort to destroy American public education (emphasis mine). We will be united. We will be strong, and we will have support from places like Connecticut, where we know the importance of public education.”
The notion that eliminating the federal Department of Education is synonymous with an “effort to destroy American public education” is a hysterical overstatement. The bulk of real education occurs in the states, including Connecticut. Hayes correctly described herself as “a product of Connecticut’s public education system.” She attended public K-12 schools and later got associate’s and bachelor’s degrees at state schools,” according to CTMirror.
The real Connecticut educational product was never “made in DC,” and there is no financing from Washington D.C. that cannot be replicated in Connecticut. So, some in Connecticut – mostly disempowered Republicans – are asking: What’s the real problem with education in Connecticut?
The problem is that the chief focus of state politicians – Hayes, Blumenthal et al -- is misplaced. Republican leaders Vince Candelora and Steve Harding are prepared to face off against what both call Connecticut’s failing pedagogical status quo.
Following the Democrat media availably in Hartford, State House Minority Leader Vincent Candelora said, “Instead of rallying their party at press conferences and spinning fear about federal funding, the governor and legislative Democrats should look in the mirror. They shut down schools here, hurt student achievement, and failed in their most basic duty — fully funding special education. Yet, they deflect blame and attack President Trump for confronting a costly, failing federal education system that benefits bureaucrats more than students and educators. Instead of clinging to the ‘madness’ of the status quo, they should help fix the problem they’ve long neglected.”
Senate Minority Leader Stephen Harding of Brookfield added, “Once again, Democrat politicians in one-party rule Connecticut continue to rush to a microphone to defend a broken education system. The status quo isn’t working. An illiterate student just graduated from Hartford High. Chronic absenteeism in Bridgeport schools is nearly 30%. We don’t need the status quo. We need reforms which support educators, maximize student achievement, and respect the role of parents. The education system in our state has failed far too many, and our children deserve far better than business as usual.”
