The Teachers Unions Sue Trump for Control: The guardians of the status quo seek judicial intervention to save the Education Department

By Jason L. Riley. Excerpts:

"In exchange for a presidential endorsement in 1976, Jimmy Carter promised the National Education Association a stand-alone cabinet department. Joseph Califano, Carter’s HEW secretary, opposed the move, predicting in his memoir that it would be “virtually impossible for the Education Secretary to run the new department efficiently.”"

"Mr. Califano noted that his skepticism was shared by others at the time, including the press. “The editorial content across the nation was scathing,” he wrote, “and even included the liberal New York Times and Washington Post which said, ‘The bill is the inspiration of the NEA, an organization that has much the same relation to the public schools as the plumbers union has to the plumbing business.’ ”"

"why is the government’s $1.6 trillion student-loan portfolio being managed by the Education Department instead of by the Small Business Administration or the Treasury? And isn’t it redundant to have a separate Office for Civil Rights inside the Education Department when we already have a Justice Department responsible for protecting civil rights?"

"money that has been appropriated by Congress, mainly to low-income school districts through the so-called Title I program. These federal funds amount to only about 10% of all education spending"

"a lot of the funding that goes into states now goes with a lot of red tape, a lot of strings attached to it"

"federal funding program for disadvantaged students has a near-perfect record of being ineffective in improving outcomes"

"In 1966, a year after the Title I program was created, a frustrated Sen. Robert F. Kennedy exclaimed: “What happened to the children? Do you mean you spent a billion dollars, and you don’t know whether they can read or not?”"

"Spending has risen while test scores have stagnated, and U.S. performance on international assessments has worsened. Meanwhile, union-allied lawmakers have blocked reforms—charter schools, vouchers, tuition tax credits—that have proved both popular and effective, especially among low-income minorities."

" The money continues to flow with little or no accounting whether it’s being used responsibly, let alone effectively."