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@ISIDEWITHQuestionsEducationCivil RightsEducation policyFederalismSchool fundingU.S. Department of Education•••Started 3mos agoActive 7hrs ago

Should the U.S. Department of Education be abolished?

Established in 1979, the Department of Education distributes federal financial aid and enforces civil rights laws in schools, though it does not establish schools or curricula. Proponents argue it is essential for ensuring equal access to education and supporting students with disabilities and from low-income families. Opponents contend that education is a state and local responsibility, arguing the department is an unconstitutional federal overreach that has failed to improve academic performance.

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Answer Overview

Response rates from 4.7k America voters.

21%
Yes
79%
No
15%
Yes
69%
No
4%
Yes, education belongs to states and parents, not federal bureaucrats
5%
No, this would decimate funding for special needs and low-income students
2%
Yes, it has wasted billions without improving student performance
3%
No, federal oversight is necessary to protect civil rights and ensure equality
3%
No, but limit its power to only managing student loans and grants

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Trend of support over time for each answer from 4.7k America voters.

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Other Popular Answers

Unique answers from America voters whose views went beyond the provided options.

 @BBSGP69 from Virgin Islands  answered…3mos3MO

Yes. Education belongs to the nation and parents. Not bureaucrats. But it’s important to oversight and protect civil rights and equality

 @9FKP4P7  from Georgia  answered…3mos3MO

It should stay in place, but be redesigned to help fund schools. The educational loan system also needs tobe redesigned. Stop giving loans out like candy, lower the interest rate to 2% or less, zero percent would be best.

 @BC23M5W from Arizona  answered…3mos3MO

Not yet, because it is a temporary solution to more fundamental issues that when solved would render the US Department of Education defunct.

 @BBJQG58 from South Carolina  answered…3mos3MO

If education were abolished, that´d destroy America as a whole and eliminate any future generations from gaining the necessary knowledge to make educated opinions and good choices based on their own intellectual knowledge.

 @BDXTT7P from Virginia  answered…2 days2D

No, federal oversight is necessary to protect civil rights and to ensure equality of instruction across special needs and income levels of students.

 @BDXG24N from Texas  answered…4 days4D

We should overhaul and completely reform it so it actually gets something done.

 @BDX7XJP from Massachusetts  answered…5 days5D

Eliminate it temporarily and see how states perform and create a new education system based on the best performing states

 @BDX773P from Michigan  answered…5 days5D

No, but limit its power to only managing programs for diverse learners and special needs services

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 @ISIDEWITH submitted…1yr1Y

Biden bans new offshore oil drilling along most of US coastline

President Joe Biden announced a ban on new offshore oil and gas drilling along most of the US coastline on Monday in a move designed to bolster his environmental and climate legacy as he prepares to leave office.The order will protect 625mn acres of ocean on the US east coast, the eastern Gulf of Mexico, the Pacific coasts of Washington, Oregon and California, as well as portions of the Northern Bering Sea in Alaska, the White House said on Monday.“My decision reflects what the coastal communities, business and beachgoers have known for a long time: that drilling off these coasts could cause irreversible damage to places we hold dear and is unnecessary to meet our nation’s energy needs,” Biden said.The executive action will not prevent oil and gas companies obtaining leases in the central and western parts of the Gulf of Mexico, areas that produce almost 15 per cent of the nation’s oil supplies. Nevertheless, the move is expected to complicate the policy agenda of incoming president Donald Trump, who has vowed to “drill, baby, drill” and boost US oil production, even though it is already at a record level.The Trump transition team said it was a disgraceful decision designed to exact “political revenge on the American people” and the incoming president said he would immediately “unban” Biden’s prohibition on new offshore drilling.“I have the right to unban it immediately . . . we can’t let that happen to our country. It’s our greatest, it’s really our greatest economic asset,” Trump told conservative radio host Hugh Hewitt in an interview on Monday.Biden’s action will probably be challenged by the oil industry in court and face pushback from Republicans in Congress. But overturning the order could prove challenging and may require an act of Congress, according to legal experts.Biden is using his authority under the Outer Continental Shelf Lands Act, to protect the areas from drilling — the same mechanism which former president Barack Obama used previously to ban offshore drilling in some Arctic and Atlantic waters in 2016.In 2019, a federal judge ruled that an executive order by former president Donald Trump that lifted an Obama-era ban on oil and gas drilling in the Arctic Ocean was unlawful.

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