Districts and worked on have our white districts and they went for it. Now they realize they made a bad mistake because you have these safe black districts in these allwhite districts. You have a republican establishment that controls everything in the schools in montgomery its interesting. There are three target schools. And i visited two of them. In the schools they are about one third black, one third Asian American because there are a couple of career and automobile plants near there. So a lot of korean americans and a third white. People go there because they get a good education. I would have set my daughter there. They are great schools. I would not send my daughter to the all black schools that are just holding pens for these kids. So that is the trouble. And the trouble. In the educational system is so bad. Alabama state university, the allblack university is terrible. These people graduate from their barely literate. Many of them. Some get good education, good education, suffer to say that for some people dont get much of education there. There is no pressure to change that. Its a new kind of ghetto mentality. I dont know know where we go from there. But at least black people can go where they want in the south. They can walk, they can go, its go, its funny because i had a white person who read the manuscript and i talked about white drinking fountains, some were colored fountains sunset colored only and some said white only. And they and they so what are you talking about . There were not white only on the fountains, they didnt have to, it, it was assumed there white only. They are colored only on some of the fountains but not white only. So the apartheid world, it was not created until the early years of the 20th century by the way. Thats whats interesting. The jim crow rules. Thats when they came in a talked about the Transit System being segregated in mobile. Up until until then it was a very different world. Up until then black people could go to restaurants restaurants. The south is at a crucial juncture now and well see which way things go. On that note. Okay, thank you very much. [applause]. [inaudible] [inaudible] most in the white house historically who spend their whole lives hungering and thirsting for this edition find themselves unsatisfied when they reach it. It often leave the white house disappointed, disillusioned or broken. Very few of them leave historically. Wishing for more. That tells you something about maybe human ambition and about political ambition in particular you can watch this and other programs online epic tv. Org. [inaudible] [inaudible] hello and welcome to the heritage foundation. I am andrew, thank you all for joining us today in this auditorium. I want to take an opportunity to remind you to silence your cell phones. For anyone watching online, you are welcome to submit questions by emailing speaker at heritage. Org. Hosting todays program is Lindsay Burke. She researches and writes on federal and state education issues. She focuses on reduces and empowering families with School Choice. Thank you andrew. Thank you for being here today and everybody watching online as well. We are excited to welcome vicki to heritage today to discuss her thorough and really interesting new book. She does not mix words at all, the very title fairly arse of miseducation of americas children. She argues it is time to end it not and federal intervention and education. As she explains in her book, the federal government left education alone for about 100 years recognizing that it was the purview of state and localities. But gradually federal restraint gave away and by 1979 we saw the first cabinet level agency for education established. With a burst of the u. S. Department of education. Today, that agency houses nearly 5000 employees, manages over 150 federal Education Programs and has a discretionary budget of about 70,000,000,000 dollars. I might add it is really the tip of the iceberg. We see this parasitic relationship with state education agencies as well who have to be responsive to the federal mandates and dictates. As a result they have increased their staffing over the decades as well. So what have we gotten for this federal largess as doctor contends is not approved education outcomes. Its its red tape, bureaucracy and wasteful spending. The u. S. Has increasingly centralized education policy to increase its spending, to increase programs and efforts such as, core. Its interesting to note that other countries have gone in the opposite direction, decentralizing education decisionmaking authority. And empowering families competition. So is there a better path for the u. S. . Can we to embrace decentralization and competition in education . I will epic answer that question. That is a little more in her discussion but we do have a major opportunity to advance Education Choice through innovative options like Education Savings Account. To restore private lending and the Higher Education market as a major step to also reducing federal intervention. In general just limiting federal which is a state local issue. Doctor is a senior fellow and director of women for School Choice program at the independent women form. Prior to that, she was associate director of education studies and director of the Goldwater Institute education policy initiative. She received her phd in political philosophy from the institute for philosophic studies at the university of dallas. Please joining in welcoming our speaker. [applause]. In afternoon. I would like to thank Lindsay Burke and andrew for putting this wonderful event together. It is a thrill to be here at the heritage foundation. Thank you all for coming to talk about this very important topic that actually touches every one of our lives. Hank you for listening to an opening discussion on my new book about the federal department of education, failure. Failure. As i was traveling here i recalled the word of a former democratic member of congress from illinois who is a former teacher and lawyer, about his vision to the department of education. It would be a pure fountain from which a pure stream could be poured upon all of the states. We want to a controlling head by which conflicting systems in different states can be harmonized by which there can be uniformity. I take the high ground that every child is entitled to an education at the hands of somebody and that this ought not to be left to the caprice of individuals or the state so far as we have any authority to regulate it. Sound familiar . Well it is probably not we think. You think. This argument was actually made by representative Samuel Moulton of illinois, 150 years 50 years ago. One year before the u. S. Department of education was originally created back in 1867. As the title of my book suggests, i have a different view about the supposedly purity of the d. C. String pouring onstage on stage like my home state of arizona. It was widely hailed as one of the National Leaders in School Choice. I see we have some arizonans in the audience, go arizona. I was inspired to write this book as we were approaching the 30 year history of the u. S. Department of education. I wondered, are we better off because of it . Frankly i do not think we are. Based on the increasing calls of the departments abolition this president ial election cycle, i think it is fair to say a lot of us think its time to pull the plug on the department of education. But what does that really mean . If the department of history teaches us anything its that government bureaucracies are not like fine wine. They dont get better with age. History also teaches us that bureaucracies are resilient. U. S. Department of education was downgraded, defunded and reshuffled from one federal agency for another throughout much of the 19th and 20th century. Rather than abolishing it in the 1980s we decided to keep it around and tried to use it to promote an excellence agenda. The result today, core. This is not what we were promised at all back in 1979. We colleague u. S. Department of education was supposed to do three things. One, in prove student achievement. Two, supplement, not supplant state local government. Three, improve management and efficiency of federal Education Programs. So how did that turn out . Lets turn turn to number one. Improves student achievement. Achieve across subject and grade levels on the nations report card as well as various international tasks have been essentially flat during the periods preceding u. S. Department of education and up until today. As far as i can tell from the track record we are spending above average amounts for student achievement. Were spending up to one third more than topperforming countries in the world. The the u. S. Department of education was also supposed to supplement, not supplant state and local government. Our Founding Fathers never intended for the federal government to be a quote, unquote a partner with the state and education, much less the boss. In fact the word education does not even appear in our constitution. By going along with this partnership it has been a bad deal for students, schools, and taxpayers. Turn the no child left behind era for example from 2002 until 2009 the department of educations paperwork burden of educations paperwork burden increase by an estimated 65 and was larger than the burden imposed by the department of defense, energy, and justice, to name a few. With that, the Administrative Burden is now so great that most employees at state Education Departments are hired just to deal with federal Education Programs. Today programs. Today in the common core era, spending is estimated to be 80 billion according to a former u. S. Department of education official. That is nearly 20 times the entire 4,400,000,000 race to the top program that was supposed to incentivize state reform. What about number three . A u. S. Department of education listed improved management and efficiency of federal Education Program. After 30 years in operation the Government Accountability office or gao found that the Education Department was one of a dozen agencies operating nearly 300 federal, social and Education Training programs. From 1980 through 2010, the department of Education Program spending increased by more than 57 million. Outpacing student enrollment by more than 51. So after more than three decades with the department of education, the educational performance of american student has not improved in spite of massive spending increases funneled through the department. The department has not achieved the efficiencies reduce paperwork or better management of federal programs or filing more money through the department is really going to improve education in the United States. On the contrary, such notions have no constitutional basis even if the u. S. Department of education were getting great results. To improve the promises of more flexibility. Theres no evidence that officials in the federal government including those in the u. S. Department of education no best. Neither do that matter state officials. The key difference for those of us that believe in constitutional federalism is that state citizens are best situated to hold state lawmakers accountable and enact reforms that actually work. The u. S. Department of education is often a hindrance in obstacle to effective programs that parents want him to children are succeeding. Parents are concerned about subjecting their children to the common cortecommon cortes to bes are opting their children out of testing and droves. Does this look familiar to anyone . Has anyone gotten one of these letters is a letter sent out in late december from the u. S. Department of education to all states of education. I call it a happy new year nasty gram exercising there any legal rights to direct the upbringing education of their children they decided to opt their children out of the common core influence test. What do we get in return . This latter from the u. S. Department of education sending tips to the state chiefs on how you can threaten schools and students. Its threatening to withhold our money from our students and our schools unless we totaled nine. Its time to end federal control in the u. S. Department of education. Each time these efforts failed because neither thought to truly evil Old Department of education and instead beginning in 1868, the department was downgraded and changed what we call the department was reshuffled around until ultimately it was restored to full cabinet Member Department in 1979. Restoring the Constitutional Authority over education requires a genuine abolition plan. History has shown that in the past half measures they will not prevent the u. S. Department of education. Its a costly pass through for the political agenda that washington, d. C. And special Interest Groups all at the expense of School Children and taxpayers. That reality is the foundation of any blueprint to abolish the department of education. The first would be the Dc Opportunity Scholarship Program as the name suggests it is a dc program that has a constitutional basis that i would have a privately managed. There is no reason how the u. S. Department of education evil in the Opportunity Scholarship Program particularly since through the efforts of the department of education. By the departments with Works Division and they tried to kill it by attrition. Number two, post secondary for veterans and dependents. It should be administered by veterans affairs. Finally the right for civil rights moved to the department of justice since it does perform constitutionally sanctioned work. However come as we are going to discuss in a moment, since there wont be any u. S. Department of education plans, any funding it would see to oversee the u. S. Department of Education Programs would be restored. Now, i wont go through the remaining more than 120 Department Programs administered by 29 offices and 4600 employees. But here is an overview have to eliminate the u. S. Department of education through what i call strategic dismantling. Strictly speaking, strategic dismantling does eliminate a single u. S. Department of Education Program. It simply transfers programs, management and associated funding back to the state. We couldn could be getting ride Physical Plant and the Program Administrative overhead and associated personnel that would be returned to taxpayers in the form of a tax rebate. The remaining 260 billion associated Program Funding along with another estimated 275 million. The state would be administered to the state education agencies. Taxpayers in the states would no longer fund the programs in the federal government, but would instead pay for them through the estate tax is untold the programs preexisting expiration date. Continuation of the programs previously administered by the u. S. Department of education would depend on taxpayers dinged them necessary and effective enough for the funding in the states. But what happens to schools during this transition . This is one of the questions i get most often. Its one of considering that as we stand right now in the prevailing relationship in the state anstates and federal gove, federal funding lasts roughly one to five years depending on the program and federal funding is by no means guaranteed to cover 100 of the actual cost much less the paperwork and over head burdens. So theyve already experienced uncertainty by relying on federal funding. Whats more roughly every decade or so the successive administrations assume office in, students, schools, teachers and taxpayers are subjected to the new nationwide education agendas and mandates that require expensive replacement of the previous administrations programs with winds from the current administration. What makes strategic dismantling different is that once the control over Education Programs and funding is returned to the states, lawmakers and taxpayers, pairings and educators can work more closely together at the local levels to better and sure clear education policy priorities customized to meeting the specific needs of students and communities across the state. Without all the chaos, cost and the peoplcostingthe people of ts several decades of federal leadership and education. Now is the time to end the department of education once and for all. Im like 36 years ago, today we have thriving examples in the state Education Programs and ofd services are working for students, their families and taxpayers. There are School Choice programs in 30 states and the district of columbia. There are 26 voucher programs, 26 voucher programs and tax scholarship programs, nine individual tax credit deduction programs in five educational savings account programs. And together, these programs are helping more than a million School Children and families. Not to mention, the millions more attending public district, charter, home and online schools all their parents choice. The dc didnt build any of those programs. Citizens of the states did. And these programs are improving student achievement and introducing competition for students all at a fraction of what we are told we should be spending. More than 30 years after the creation of the department of df education, students, taxpayers and the country are not better off but we can be. After decades o