But with money comes power. And because the Department of Education controls so much money, it has the power to push schools around, meaning that even things like “nonregulatory guidance” and “Dear Colleague letters” quickly become law in schools because the department threatens to withhold funding from those who don’t adhere to its edicts.

Power has been the department’s primary purpose. Its bulging bureaucracy has created rules, guidance, conditions, and red tape that have consistently stifled innovation, shackled teachers, slowed student achievement, advanced political agendas, and squandered most of the trillions in taxpayer dollars that have come through “Big ED’s” Brutalist doorways.

In one sense, it’s almost unfair to criticize the department for its failure to improve the condition of education; it doesn’t have any of the requisite tools to do so. But in another sense, that fact ultimately proves why the department need not exist at all.

[Here’s the acid test: In the decades since the DoEd has existed, has education improved or declined for American students? As we see in today’s data, it’s the latter — and it’s not even close. This has been a failed experiment in national education policy, and its 45-year-ish run should close down ASAP. Education policy should be run at the local and state level, period. — Ed]