Some House Republicans have thrown their support behind Rep. Thomas Massie (R-KY) in his bid to terminate the Department of Education. Massie, in a Twitter post, said he was introducing a bill to end the department because there was no constitutional authority for the existence of the “federal bureaucracy.”
I have introduced a bill to terminate the Department of Education.
There is no Constitutional authority for this federal bureaucracy to exist. pic.twitter.com/xKWHgPfVnq
— Thomas Massie (@RepThomasMassie) February 14, 2023
A total of nine Republican House members, including Rep. Tom Tiffany, have signed on to be cosponsors of Massie’s bill, titled the H.R. 899.
Thank you to @RepTiffany for cosponsoring my bill to eliminate the Federal Department of Education (HR 899).
The bill is one sentence:
“The Department of Education shall terminate on December 31, 2023.”
— Thomas Massie (@RepThomasMassie) February 15, 2023
Other Reps who have signed on to the bill include Rep. Chip Roy (R-TX), Rep. Ralph Norman (R-SC), Rep. Jeff Duncan (R-SC), Rep. Jody Hice (R-GA), Rep. Jeff Duncan (R-SC), Rep. Lauren Boebert (R-CO), Rep. Tim Burchett (R-TN), and Rep. Andy Biggs (R-AZ).
Unelected bureaucrats in Washington, D.C. should not be in charge of our children’s intellectual and moral development!https://t.co/uST5cEKYx5
— Thomas Massie (@RepThomasMassie) February 14, 2023
According to the Daily Caller, Miassie first introduced the bill in February 2017, on the day former Secretary of Education Betsy DeVos was scheduled to be confirmed. Massie argued that neither Congress nor the president nor his appointees have the constitutional authority to decide how and what children should learn in schools.
Massie later reintroduced the bill during the 117th Congress in February 2021 with the bill containing a single sentence “The Department of Education shall terminate on December 31, 2022.”
Bureaucrats in DC shouldn’t be deciding what your children learn at school.
My bill, #HR899, is only one sentence long:
“The Department of Education shall terminate on December 31, 2022.”
— Thomas Massie (@RepThomasMassie) April 28, 2022
“Unelected bureaucrats in Washington, D.C. should not be in charge of our children’s intellectual and moral development,” Massie said in a 2021 press release. “States and local communities are best positioned to shape curricula that meet the needs of their students. Schools should be accountable. Parents have the right to choose the most appropriate educational opportunity for their children, including home school, public school, or private school.”
I challenge anyone who opposes your bill to identify a single metric that has improved in public education as a result of the US Department of Education.
They can’t. Because there are none.
— Connor Boyack 📚 (@cboyack) February 14, 2023
The move comes as Republicans fight back against woke ideologies and policies being fed to children in schools. Despite enjoying massive support among Americans, the bill will likely fail in the Democrat-controlled senate.
