Rand Paul schools Margaret Brennan on Education Department's utility — or lack thereof

President Donald Trump signed an executive order Thursday to start the elimination of the Education Department, then indicated Friday that some of the department's remaining functions would immediately be offloaded onto the Small Business Administration and the Department of Health and Human Services.

These decisions have enraged various radical groups, including the teachers' unions that demanded the devastating closure of schools during the pandemic. The liberal media appears to be reflexively keen to join American Federation of Teachers boss Randi Weingarten and other leftists in defending the moribund institution, CBS News' Margaret Brennan included.

In conversation Sunday with Kentucky Sen. Rand Paul (R), Brennan concern-mongered about the closure of the Education Department, suggesting federal funding for schools in his state might be at risk. The senator questioned the talking head's presumptions, particularly about the value of those federal funds, and proposed a possible innovation, namely that an A-team of better-paid and higher-caliber teachers could teach American students en masse.

Rather than fight for a guarantee of more federal funding, Paul underscored that he would prefer to secure "a guarantee that my kids can read and write and do math."

'Why do two-thirds of the kids not read at proficiency?'

Brennan began by suggesting that federal funds for students in high-poverty Kentucky schools through Title I of the Elementary and Secondary Education Act might be threatened by the Education Department's closure.

"[Kentucky has] over 900 schools that have these Title I programs, which are low-income schools who need that federal subsidy to continue to operate. How are schools going to get that money if the president closes the Education Department?" asked Brennan.

Rather than identify a way of retaining such funding, Paul pointed out that this and other streams of federal funding aimed at improving student achievement don't actually appear to helping.

"I think the bigger question if we're sending all this money to Kentucky and all the other states [is] why are our scores abysmal?" said the Republican senator. "Why do two-thirds of the kids not read at proficiency? Why do two-thirds of the kids or more not have math proficiency?"

The Education Data Initiative indicated that as of February, federal, state, and local governments were blowing $857.2 billion on K-12 education annually. This works out to $17,277 per pupil. Federal tax dollars account for 13.6% of public K-12 funding nationwide.

In Kentucky, K-12 schools blow on average $15,337 per pupil, $3,195 of which is apparently from the federal government.

'The number of dollars has gone up exponentially, and our scores have gone the other way.'

According to the National Assessment of Educational Progress, only 31% of fourth-grade students and 30% of eighth-grade students nationwide performed at or above the "NAEP Proficient" level on the reading assessment in 2024.

Last year, only 39% of fourth-grade students and 28% of eighth-grade students were found to be proficient in math.

The 2019 NAEP assessment of fourth- and eighth-grade proficiency levels found that only 35% and 33% made the grade, respectively.

Scores were better in Paul's state but still far from stellar.

In Kentucky, standardized test results indicated last year that 47% of elementary students were proficient in reading, 42% of students were proficient in math, and 34% were proficient in science, reported the Louisville Courier Journal.

The assessment conducted in May found that at the middle school level, 45% of students were proficient in reading, 39% were proficient in math, and 22% were proficient in science. At the high school level, 45% were proficient in reading, 35% in math, and 6% in science.

"It's an utter failure," added Paul.

Brennan countered by intimating the problem might be that the programs receiving oodles of federal cash may have been poorly administered by regional administrators — prompting Paul to question the federal mediation of taxpayer funds intended for education in the first place.

"Look, the number of dollars has gone up exponentially, and our scores have gone the other way. So dollars are not proportional to educational success," said Paul.

"It has always been a position, a very mainstream Republican position, to have control of the schools by the states," said Paul. "Send the money back to the states, or better yet — never take it from the states. About half of our budget in Kentucky goes to education, and that's the same in a lot of states. I think we can handle it much better."

"When I talk to teachers, they chafe at the national mandates on testing they think are not appropriate for their kids," continued the senator. "They think they waste too much time teaching to national testing. The teachers would like more autonomy, and I think the teachers deserve more autonomy."

In addition to suggesting that states are better equipped to handle local education and that national educational mandates interfere with regional education efforts, Paul indicated that radical, outside-the-box thinking might be the way forward. He proposed, for instance, the rollout of online instruction by "an NBA or NFL of teachers — the most extraordinary teachers teach the entire country, if not the entire world."

This proposed A-team of teachers "might teach 10 million kids at a time because it would be presented to the internet with local teachers reinforcing the lessons," said Paul.

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