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Eliminating the DOE Won’t Put the Nation at Risk
In 2019, Congresswoman Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez (D-NY) received criticism for her radical proposal to abolish the Department of Homeland Security. Ocasio-Cortez replied, “It’s not that radical. When DHS was first formed by Bush 17 years ago, many members of Congress were concerned — including GOP members — that we were setting up a ticking time bomb for civil liberties erosion and abuse of power. Discussing reorganization shouldn’t be out of the question.”
Eliminating the DOE isn’t radical either, and reorganization may be appropriate.
The Reorganization Act of 1939 established the Federal Security Agency (FSA), which brought together all federal programs that dealt with health, education, and social security. The FSA was eliminated under Reorganization Plan #1 in 1953, but all of its functions were reassigned to the secretary of the newly formed Department of Health, Education, and Welfare (HEW).
In 1979, President Jimmy Carter signed the Department of Education Organization Act. The act split education from HEW, establishing the Department of Education (DOE) and renaming the remainder of HEW the Department of Health and Human Services.
The new Department of Education did not inherit all federal education programs. The Department of Agriculture maintained responsibility for the school…