[Shaun @ Tru6]

Education is a state and local issue.

35 years ago when I was doing government contract cost accounting, my DoD/NSF focused company was sold so I went to a DoEd focused company. They actually hired me to find $1 million that they couldn't account for. Took 3 weeks to reconcile and had to bring in my own Mac with Excel since Lotus 123 was garbage. Anyway, I learned then that the DoEd, from my perspective and what I was told by staff, was a waste of money. My company developed curricula that was ultimately shelved and not used. I was only there for a year and obviously the DoEd is a massive organization so only a tiny bit of perspective.

I also learned that education is a state and local issue and one reason I would support a more robust FEDERAL education system. For decades now my observation is that some states are race to the bottom states. That is they sacrifice important things like education while chasing tax dollar breaks to import business interest while their property value taxation can't support a high quality education system. Too many states don't prioritize education but do prioritize tax breaks for huge companies and building sports stadiums for out of this world wealthy sports enterprises.

What do we get? Low quality state and local education with the Federal government paying states to help their poorest and disabled, etc. kids.