For example, California’s state superintendent of schools, Tony Thurmond, responded by saying, “To tear down and abolish an organization that provides protections for our students is a threat to the well-being of our students and our families and of Americans.”
Much of the progressive attachment to the department is misplaced.
Rather than engage the proposal, Thurmond’s response seems like a projection of how he uses his own state-level Department of Education as leverage against districts he detests. It also ignores the fact that most education spending comes from local and state resources, and a significant chunk of federal funds don’t get to the classroom — or students themselves — because of the number of middlemen who take their cut first, particularly from grants.
