PETITION TO CLOSE THE U.S. DEPARTMENT OF EDUCATION AND RETURN EDUCATION AUTHORITY TO THE STATES
To: The President of the United States, The United States Congress, and the Legislatures of the Several States
From: We the People
We, the undersigned, petition our elected representatives to close the U.S. Department of Education, end federal control and funding of education, and return responsibility for education to the states, local communities, parents, teachers, and the people.
The Constitution does not expressly delegate authority over education to the federal government.
The Tenth Amendment establishes that powers not delegated to the United States by the Constitution, nor prohibited by it to the states, are reserved to the states respectively, or to the people.
Education has historically been primarily a state and local responsibility.
Congress created the current Cabinet-level U.S. Department of Education in 1979, and the Department began operations in 1980. Since that time, federal education laws, funding programs, regulations, and administrative requirements have expanded federal involvement in education.
Under the constitutional and financial reforms proposed by Americas Policy Institute, education would be treated as a responsibility of the states and the people rather than as a federal responsibility requiring continued federal funding.
Federal education programs and funding should therefore not simply be moved from the U.S. Department of Education to another federal agency.
THE AUTHORITY SHOULD RETURN TO THE STATES.
THE MONEY SHOULD REMAIN WITH THE STATES.
THE DECISIONS SHOULD BE MADE CLOSER TO THE STUDENTS, PARENTS, TEACHERS, AND COMMUNITIES DIRECTLY AFFECTED BY THEM.
RETURN EDUCATION AUTHORITY TO THE STATES.
EMPOWER PARENTS, TEACHERS, AND LOCAL COMMUNITIES.
PUT STUDENTS BEFORE FEDERAL BUREAUCRACY.
CLOSE THE U.S. DEPARTMENT OF EDUCATION — DO NOT SIMPLY MOVE THE BUREAUCRACY
Closing the U.S. Department of Education should mean more than removing the name from a federal building and transferring its programs, employees, regulations, and spending authority to another federal agency.
We call for:
• The permanent closure of the U.S. Department of Education.
• An orderly transition that returns education responsibilities to the states and local communities.
• Elimination of federal education programs, regulations, mandates, and funding conditions that attempt to direct or influence state and local education policy.
• Repeal of federal education statutes and provisions whose purpose is to direct, condition, regulate, or fund state and local education policy, except where Congress is exercising a separate authority delegated to the federal government by the Constitution.
• Elimination of unnecessary federal education bureaucracy and administrative overhead rather than transferring that bureaucracy to another federal department.
• Removal of federal funding mechanisms that allow Washington to influence state education policy through requirements, regulations, conditions, and/or strings attached.
• States to retain greater control of their own financial resources so education can be funded and administered closer to the people being served.
• A responsible transition that prevents unnecessary disruption to students, families, teachers, and schools while authority and responsibility are returned to the states.
THE STATES SHOULD NOT HAVE TO SEND THEIR MONEY TO WASHINGTON AND THEN BEG WASHINGTON TO GET THEIR OWN MONEY BACK FOR EDUCATION.
IF EDUCATION IS A STATE RESPONSIBILITY, THEN THE AUTHORITY AND THE RESOURCES SHOULD REMAIN WITH THE STATES.
RETURN CONTROL TO STATES, COMMUNITIES, PARENTS, AND TEACHERS
Once federal control is removed, education authority should remain as close as possible to the students and families being served.
States should establish the basic legal framework for education while allowing local communities, elected school boards, parents, educators, and schools substantial authority to determine how their schools operate.
We call for:
• States to establish their own education laws, academic requirements, funding systems, teacher-qualification standards, and accountability systems.
• Local communities and school boards to make decisions concerning curriculum, school operations, staffing, and the educational needs of their students within state law.
• Parents to have meaningful access to information about what their children are being taught and meaningful participation in decisions affecting their children's education.
• Teachers to have a meaningful voice in classroom and instructional decisions without unnecessary federal bureaucracy dictating how they teach.
• States to determine their own laws governing teacher unions and collective bargaining rather than having those decisions controlled by Washington.
• No collective-bargaining agreement, tenure provision, employment contract, or other policy should make it practically impossible to remove a teacher who is ineffective, engages in serious misconduct, or fails to perform the responsibilities of the position.
• Teachers accused of misconduct or inadequate performance should receive a fair and timely process, but that process should not become an endless procedure that prevents legitimate dismissal.
• School administrators should be held accountable for documenting performance problems honestly and taking appropriate action when a teacher is not meeting established standards.
TEACHERS DESERVE FAIR TREATMENT.
STUDENTS DESERVE EFFECTIVE TEACHERS.
NO UNION, CONTRACT, OR BUREAUCRACY SHOULD PLACE PROTECTION OF A JOB ABOVE THE EDUCATION AND SAFETY OF A CHILD.
RESTORE PARENTAL AUTHORITY AND TRANSPARENCY
Parents are primarily responsible for the upbringing and education of their children. Public schools exist to serve students, families, and communities—not to replace parents in decisions concerning their children.
Returning education authority to the states should include strong protections for parental involvement, access, and transparency.
We call for states to establish laws that:
• Give parents timely access to their minor child's educational records, academic progress, disciplinary records, and other school-maintained records concerning their child.
• Give parents reasonable access to curriculum, instructional materials, textbooks, digital resources, and other materials being used to educate their children.
• Require schools to clearly inform parents about significant educational programs, policies, and activities affecting their children.
• Require schools to provide parents advance notice of sensitive surveys, evaluations, instructional materials, presentations, or activities before they are presented to or administered to their child.
• Give parents a reasonable opportunity to review the material in advance.
• Require parental consent before a minor child participates in sensitive surveys, evaluations, presentations, or activities involving highly personal, sexual, psychological, political, religious, or other sensitive subject matter.
• Give parents a clear and simple right to opt their child out without penalty when they do not consent to the material or activity.
• Protect the privacy of students and families and establish clear rules governing the collection, storage, use, and disclosure of student information.
• Provide parents with a clear process to question educational materials, challenge inaccurate records, raise concerns, and receive a timely response from the school or local school board.
• Any exception that prevents parental access or notification shall be specifically authorized by law or court order and shall not be based merely on a school's discretionary decision to withhold information from a parent.
PARENTS SHOULD KNOW WHAT THEIR CHILDREN ARE BEING TAUGHT.
PARENTS SHOULD KNOW WHAT THEIR SCHOOLS ARE DOING.
PARENTS SHOULD HAVE A MEANINGFUL VOICE IN THEIR CHILDREN'S EDUCATION.
GIVE PARENTS MEANINGFUL EDUCATIONAL CHOICE
Returning education authority to the states should also return greater educational choice to parents and families.
No single educational setting is right for every child. Students have different abilities, interests, learning styles, circumstances, and educational needs.
States should create education systems that give parents meaningful opportunities to choose the educational setting they believe best serves their child.
We call upon states to:
• Protect the right of parents to choose among traditional public schools, public charter schools, private schools, homeschooling, vocational and technical education, and other lawful educational alternatives.
• States shall establish open-enrollment policies that allow families to seek available public-school opportunities outside their assigned neighborhood or school district. Where existing state law prevents reasonable open enrollment, those laws shall be changed to provide families greater educational choice.
• Allow states and their citizens to determine whether education funding should follow the student through scholarships, education savings accounts, vouchers, tax-credit programs, or other state-created school-choice programs.
• Ensure that students with disabilities and students from lower-income families are not excluded from meaningful educational choices simply because their families lack financial resources.
• Protect legitimate homeschooling and private-school independence while allowing states to establish reasonable requirements necessary to protect children and verify that students are receiving an education.
• Require schools receiving public education funds to provide parents with clear information concerning academic performance, safety, financial accountability, and educational programs so families can make informed choices.
• Encourage vocational, technical, apprenticeship, and career-focused education for students whose interests and abilities may be better served by alternatives to a traditional four-year college path.
THE PURPOSE OF EDUCATION FUNDING SHOULD BE TO EDUCATE THE CHILD—NOT SIMPLY TO PRESERVE A PARTICULAR INSTITUTION OR BUREAUCRACY.
PARENTS SHOULD HAVE CHOICES.
STUDENTS SHOULD HAVE OPPORTUNITIES.
STATES AND COMMUNITIES SHOULD HAVE THE FREEDOM TO BUILD EDUCATION SYSTEMS THAT WORK FOR THEIR PEOPLE.
FOCUS EDUCATION ON KNOWLEDGE, SKILLS, AND PREPARATION FOR LIFE
States and local communities shall establish educational standards designed to ensure that students graduate with the knowledge and practical skills necessary to become capable, informed, and self-sufficient adults.
Schools should focus first on providing students with a strong educational foundation.
We call for students to receive meaningful instruction in:
• Reading, writing, spelling, grammar, and effective communication.
• Mathematics, including the practical application of mathematics in everyday life.
• Science and the scientific method.
• American history, state and local history, and world history.
• Civics, including the Constitution, the Bill of Rights, the structure of federal and state government, the responsibilities of citizenship, and how citizens can lawfully participate in and petition their government.
• Personal financial literacy, including budgeting, saving, banking, credit, interest, loans, mortgages, taxes, insurance, investing, and the financial consequences of debt.
• Basic economic principles and an understanding of how businesses, employment, wages, markets, and entrepreneurship operate.
• Computer and technology skills necessary to function in a modern economy.
• Vocational and technical skills, including opportunities for students to pursue trades, apprenticeships, certifications, and career training.
• Practical life skills that help prepare students for employment, homeownership, family responsibilities, and independent adult life.
A FOUR-YEAR COLLEGE DEGREE SHOULD NOT BE TREATED AS THE ONLY MEASURE OF EDUCATIONAL SUCCESS.
A STUDENT WHO GRADUATES PREPARED TO BECOME AN ELECTRICIAN, PLUMBER, WELDER, MECHANIC, CARPENTER, FARMER, TECHNICIAN, ENTREPRENEUR, OR OTHER SKILLED PROFESSIONAL HAS ACHIEVED EDUCATIONAL SUCCESS JUST AS A STUDENT PREPARED TO ATTEND COLLEGE HAS.
EDUCATION SHOULD PREPARE CHILDREN FOR LIFE—NOT SIMPLY PREPARE THEM TO PASS A TEST.
PROTECT THE INNOCENCE OF OUR CHILDREN
Schools have a legitimate educational role in teaching the biological facts of human anatomy, puberty, reproduction, pregnancy, reproductive health, and disease prevention.
Such instruction shall be limited to factual biological and medical information necessary to teach those subjects and shall not be used as a means to introduce or promote sexual conduct, sexual orientation, gender identity, or sexual ideology.
We call for states to establish laws that:
• Limit school instruction concerning sexual matters to factual biological and medical information necessary to teach human anatomy, puberty, reproduction, pregnancy, reproductive health, and disease prevention.
• Prohibit schools, teachers, administrators, outside organizations, contractors, and school-sponsored programs from promoting or advocating particular beliefs concerning sexual orientation or gender identity to minor students.
• Prohibit schools from surveying or questioning minor students about their sexual orientation, gender identity, sexual behavior, or other intimate sexual matters except where specifically required by law for an individual student's immediate health or safety.
• Prohibit sexually explicit instructional materials, presentations, books, videos, digital content, or activities that are not reasonably necessary for legitimate biological, reproductive, or health education.
• Require parents to receive advance notice of any school instruction involving human reproduction or other sexual subject matter and provide parents with the opportunity to review the instructional material beforehand.
• Give parents the right to remove their child from such instruction without academic penalty.
• Leave discussions concerning personal beliefs about sexuality and gender to parents and families rather than making public schools responsible for introducing those subjects to children.
Nothing in this policy permits bullying, harassment, threats, or mistreatment of any student. Every child shall be treated with dignity and protected while attending school.
TEACH BIOLOGY.
TEACH HUMAN REPRODUCTION.
LEAVE PERSONAL SEXUAL MATTERS TO PARENTS AND FAMILIES.
LEAVE OUR CHILDREN'S INNOCENCE ALONE!
RETURN SPECIAL EDUCATION AUTHORITY TO THE STATES
The educational needs of children with disabilities shall continue to be addressed, but special education shall be the responsibility of the states and local communities—not the federal government.
We call for:
• Repeal of the Individuals with Disabilities Education Act (IDEA) and its associated federal regulations, mandates, funding requirements, and administrative requirements.
• Each state to establish and administer its own laws, protections, standards, and programs for educating children with disabilities.
• States and local communities to determine how special education is funded, structured, administered, and delivered.
• States to ensure that the educational needs of children with disabilities are properly addressed and that parents have a meaningful role in decisions concerning their child's education.
• An orderly transition of responsibility so that children currently receiving special-education services are not unnecessarily deprived of those services during the change from federal to state control.
SPECIAL EDUCATION SHALL CONTINUE.
FEDERAL CONTROL SHALL NOT.
THE RESPONSIBILITY, AUTHORITY, AND ACCOUNTABILITY SHALL REST WITH THE STATES.
RETURN TESTING AND ACCOUNTABILITY TO THE STATES
Eliminating federal control of education shall not eliminate accountability.
The responsibility for establishing academic standards, measuring educational progress, and holding schools accountable shall rest with the states, local communities, parents, and taxpayers.
We call for:
• Each state to establish its own academic standards and determine how student progress and educational performance shall be measured.
• States to determine what standardized testing, if any, is necessary to measure whether students are learning the knowledge and skills established by the state.
• Schools to provide parents with clear and understandable information concerning their child's academic progress.
• States and local school systems to make school-performance information available to parents and taxpayers so they can determine whether schools are successfully educating students.
• Accountability systems to measure actual educational results rather than merely compliance with bureaucratic rules, paperwork, or administrative procedures.
• Testing to focus on legitimate academic knowledge and skills and not be used to survey students concerning personal beliefs, sexual matters, political beliefs, family beliefs, or other private matters unrelated to measuring academic achievement.
• States and local communities to establish appropriate corrective action when schools consistently fail to educate students to the standards established by the state.
• Parents and taxpayers to have access to understandable information concerning school spending and educational results so they can evaluate whether education dollars are being used effectively.
WASHINGTON DOES NOT NEED TO TEST OUR CHILDREN TO DETERMINE WHETHER THEY CAN READ, WRITE, OR DO MATHEMATICS.
THE STATES CAN ESTABLISH THE STANDARDS.
THE STATES CAN MEASURE THE RESULTS.
PARENTS AND COMMUNITIES CAN HOLD THEIR SCHOOLS ACCOUNTABLE.
RESTORE ORDER, SAFETY, AND DISCIPLINE IN OUR SCHOOLS
Every student deserves the opportunity to learn in a safe and orderly environment.
Teachers cannot effectively teach when persistent disruption, intimidation, threats, violence, bullying, or serious misconduct is allowed to interfere with the classroom.
School safety and student discipline shall be the responsibility of the states, local communities, school boards, administrators, teachers, and parents—not the federal education bureaucracy.
We call for:
• States and local school systems to establish clear standards of student conduct and appropriate consequences for violations.
• Teachers to have reasonable authority to maintain order in their classrooms and remove a seriously disruptive student from the immediate classroom environment when necessary to protect the learning environment or the safety of others.
• Students who threaten, assault, intimidate, bully, or endanger teachers or other students to face appropriate and meaningful consequences.
• Serious acts of violence, credible threats of violence, weapons violations, and other criminal conduct to be handled promptly and, when appropriate under state law, referred to law enforcement.
• Parents to be promptly informed when their child is involved in serious disciplinary incidents, whether as the student accused of misconduct or as a student who has been harmed.
• Students accused of serious misconduct to receive a fair and timely process for determining what occurred and what consequences are appropriate.
• Discipline to be based upon the student's conduct and the facts of the incident, with consequences reasonably related to the seriousness and circumstances of the behavior.
• States and local communities to provide appropriate alternative educational opportunities when a student's removal from a regular classroom is necessary for an extended period.
• School administrators to support teachers who reasonably and lawfully enforce established classroom and school rules.
• Teachers and administrators to be held accountable when they abuse their authority, knowingly ignore serious misconduct, or fail to take reasonable action to protect students.
A CHILD WHO WANTS TO LEARN SHOULD NOT HAVE THEIR EDUCATION DISRUPTED BY A CHILD WHO REFUSES TO ALLOW OTHERS TO LEARN.
TEACHERS MUST BE ABLE TO TEACH.
STUDENTS MUST BE ABLE TO LEARN.
SCHOOLS MUST BE SAFE.
ALLOW COMMUNITIES TO HARDEN AND PROTECT THEIR SCHOOLS
Protecting children from acts of violence shall be a legitimate responsibility of state and local authorities.
States, local communities, and school districts shall be able to assess the security needs of their individual schools and take reasonable measures to make those schools harder targets for anyone intending to harm students, teachers, or staff.
Local and state authorities shall be free to consider security measures appropriate for their schools, including:
• Controlled and monitored entrances and access points.
• Secure exterior doors, classroom doors, windows, and other appropriate physical-security improvements.
• Security cameras, alarm systems, emergency communication systems, and other security technology.
• School resource officers, law-enforcement partnerships, trained security personnel, or other lawful security arrangements determined appropriate by state or local authorities.
• Regular security assessments to identify vulnerabilities before those vulnerabilities can be exploited.
• Emergency-response plans and coordination among schools, local law enforcement, fire departments, emergency medical services, and other first responders.
• Training and preparedness necessary for school personnel to respond effectively to serious threats and emergencies.
No community should be prevented from taking reasonable and lawful measures to protect its children because a distant bureaucracy believes every school in America should follow the same security model.
EVERY SCHOOL IS DIFFERENT.
EVERY COMMUNITY IS DIFFERENT.
STATE AND LOCAL AUTHORITIES SHALL HAVE THE FREEDOM TO HARDEN AND PROTECT THEIR SCHOOLS ACCORDING TO THEIR OWN NEEDS.
OUR CHILDREN SHOULD BE PROTECTED WHILE THEY LEARN.
ORDERLY TRANSITION — RETURN EDUCATION TO THE STATES
Closing the U.S. Department of Education shall not mean transferring its bureaucracy, programs, funding authority, mandates, or regulatory power to another federal department or agency.
The objective is to return education authority and responsibility to the states and the people.
We call for:
• Repeal of the Department of Education Organization Act and the orderly closure of the U.S. Department of Education.
• Repeal of federal education laws, programs, regulations, mandates, and funding mechanisms whose purpose is to direct, administer, regulate, condition, or fund state and local education policy.
• Repeal of federal special-education requirements, including the Individuals with Disabilities Education Act (IDEA), with responsibility for special education returned to the states.
• No transfer of eliminated federal education programs, regulatory authority, or education bureaucracy to another federal department or agency.
• No creation of a replacement federal education department, board, commission, authority, or bureaucracy performing substantially the same functions under another name.
• Existing federal education programs and funding commitments to be wound down through an orderly transition rather than abruptly discontinued in a manner that unnecessarily disrupts students or schools.
• States to be given sufficient notice of the transition so state legislatures can establish any laws, funding systems, protections, or programs they determine are necessary before federal education programs end.
• After the transition, states and local communities shall be responsible for funding and administering their own education systems.
• Federal education taxes, grants, funding programs, mandates, reporting requirements, and funding conditions shall end with the federal education system rather than being permanently redirected through another federal agency.
• The federal government shall retain only those powers and responsibilities that are delegated to it by the Constitution. Nothing in this proposal shall prevent the federal government from exercising a power that is independently and constitutionally delegated to it.
WE ARE NOT ASKING WASHINGTON TO REORGANIZE FEDERAL EDUCATION.
WE ARE ASKING WASHINGTON TO GET OUT OF EDUCATION.
DO NOT MOVE THE BUREAUCRACY.
DO NOT RENAME THE BUREAUCRACY.
RETURN THE AUTHORITY, RESPONSIBILITY, AND ACCOUNTABILITY TO THE STATES AND THE PEOPLE.
WE PETITION OUR GOVERNMENT TO ACT
We therefore petition the President, Congress, and the legislatures of the several states to take the lawful actions necessary to:
CLOSE THE U.S. DEPARTMENT OF EDUCATION.
REPEAL FEDERAL EDUCATION CONTROL, MANDATES, PROGRAMS, AND FUNDING MECHANISMS.
RETURN EDUCATION AUTHORITY AND RESPONSIBILITY TO THE STATES AND THE PEOPLE.
RESTORE PARENTAL AUTHORITY AND EDUCATIONAL CHOICE.
PROTECT THE INNOCENCE AND SAFETY OF OUR CHILDREN.
EMPOWER TEACHERS TO TEACH AND STUDENTS TO LEARN.
HOLD SCHOOLS ACCOUNTABLE TO PARENTS, COMMUNITIES, AND TAXPAYERS.
SUPPORT POLICY NOT POLITICIANS.
RETURN EDUCATION TO THE STATES.
RETURN POWER TO WE THE PEOPLE.
Signed,
WE THE PEOPLE