Unfortunately, the Democrats retained control of the House of Representatives in that election and maintained it throughout Reagan's presidency. Yet Reagan still proposed closing the Department of Education.
In a radio address delivered on March 12, 1983, he explained his education agenda. "I'd like to talk to you today about one of the most important issues that touches our lives and shapes our future: the education of America's children," Reagan said.
"(I)n recent years, our traditions of opportunity and excellence in education have been under siege," he said. "We've witnessed the growth of a huge education bureaucracy. Parents have often been reduced to the role of outsiders. Government-manufactured inflation made private schools and higher education too expensive for too many families. Even God, source of all knowledge, was expelled from classrooms."
"Federal spending on education soared eightfold in the last 20 years, rising much faster than inflation," he said. "But during the same period, scholastic aptitude test scores went down, down and down."
What remedies did Reagan propose?
He called for bringing prayer back to public schools, abolishing the Department of Education and providing parents with tuition tax credits and vouchers to help them send their children to private schools.
"Can we not begin by welcoming God back in our schools and by setting an example for children to abide by His Ten Commandments and the Golden Rule?" said Reagan.
"But better education doesn't mean a bigger Department of Education," he said. "In fact, the Department of Education should be abolished."
He then offered some proposals aimed at helping "parents reestablish control and to assist them in meeting education costs."
"First, tuition tax credits, which we've already sent to Congress, will soften the double-payment burden for those paying public school taxes and independent or parochial school tuition," he said. "This proposal will help those who need help the most -- low- and middle-income families."
"Second," he said, "we're proposing a voucher system to help parents of disadvantaged children. We want to give states or individual school districts the option of using federal education funds to create vouchers so these parents can choose which school, private or public, they want their children to attend."
"Third," he said, "we're proposing a system of educational savings accounts to help families save for college education."
Reagan was unable to get these ideas through a Democrat-controlled House. But after the Republicans took control of Congress in the 1994 election (when former Democratic President Bill Clinton was in office), they did enact legislation creating 529 plans that allowed families to save money for tuition payments in accounts where the earning were not taxed.
As reported by Americans for Prosperity, 18 states as of this June had enacted "pro-school choice bills."
In March, President Donald Trump issued an executive order directing the secretary of education to, "to the maximum extent appropriate and permitted by law, take all necessary steps to facilitate the closure of the Department of Education and return authority over education to the States and local communities while ensuring the effective and uninterrupted delivery of services, programs, and benefits on which Americans rely."
But the department remains open.
In fiscal 1988, Reagan's last full fiscal year in office, the Department of Education spent $18.246 billion, according to the Monthly Treasury Statement. In fiscal 2024, former President Joe Biden's last full fiscal year in office, it spent $268.353 billion.
Republicans in Congress should work to pass legislation permanently discontinuing this department before Trump completes his last fiscal year in office.
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