The argument is that education is already best managed at the state and local level, there’s too much bureaucracy in education, and there’s little evidence that the creation of this department in 1979 has had any measurable positive impact for students despite the $250 billion spent annually. The argument against its abolition is it provides funding to low-income schools and helps provide critical protections for marginalized students, it offers national standards and research data, and allows a central body to strategize how the U.S. competes internationally on education. What’s often not said is that the right believes that the Department of Education is a pawn of the teachers’ unions and the left believes the right wants more investment in charter schools, vouchers, and religious-based education at the risk of diluting public education.
What’s missing from this debate is this question: What’s the difference between Education and Learning? In many ways, in this era of toppling elites, education is perceived as captured by left-wing ideologues and to be more ivory tower than ever before. The education industry is slow, calcified, and so focused on teachers’ welfare that too many public schools stayed closed for too long during Covid (or at least that’s the argument). But, who can quarrel with Learning? Learning is something we do every day whether we’re in a classroom or not. It’s a foundational part of living a good life, at any age.
The Department of Education is the smallest cabinet-level department with just 4,000 employees, 75% of them in DC. What if we thought of this department as an innovation incubator, dedicated to coming up with new ideas about learning? Here are a few questions the Department of Learning could consider:
- How do we help kids learn emotions, values, and character at the earliest age possible, especially important human qualities in the era of AI?
- How do we provide more support to parents who homeschool their kids because they want to create a more experiential form of learning?
- How do we increase compensation for teachers based upon performance (which is something that would be paid for at the state or local level)?
- How do we foster lifelong learning initiatives, possibly addressing the “demographic cliff” colleges and universities are facing (NPR article on this topic) with a steady decline in 18-year-olds leading to 15% fewer people hitting adulthood fifteen years from now? (by the way, colleges have already experienced a 15% decline in enrollments between 2010-2021 so this is serious – In the first half of last year, more than one college a week announced that it would close)
- How do we help mid-lifers to create tax-advantaged savings accounts (much as we’ve done with parents for their child’s education based upon the U.S. 529 plan) so they can take a sabbatical or gap year to pursue “longlife learning” at midlife wisdom schools like MEA in their 40s or 50s?
- How do we rethink learning in the era of MOOCs, YouTube and AI so that it’s more self-initiated?
- How do we invest more in the learning of trades and elevating modern elders in the likely-growing industrial sector of our economy (particularly relevant if we’re going to have less immigration)?
What are some other questions a new Department of Learning should consider, especially if it were to replace the Department of Education?
-Chip
P.S. You deserve a free massage, right?! We’ve never offered free massages to everyone in an MEA workshop, but we’re doing that for the upcoming Owning (Body) Wisdom workshop Feb 10-15 (which just so happens to be during Valentine’s Week so maybe you bring your spouse/partner). I’m excited about this workshop as we have my fav massage therapist in the world, Molly O’Brien, plus the former CEO of the Institute for Functional Medicine Laurie Hofmann along with me. Doesn’t your body deserve both some pampering and some education? Your body is your rental vehicle you were issued at birth – this workshop will help you with your long-term maintenance of this vehicle.