Sen. Mike Rounds introduced the “Returning Education to Our States Act” to eliminate the U.S. Department of Education (ED) and redistribute its duties to other federal departments. Rounds believes in local control over education and wants to give more power to state and local education authorities. The bill details which departments would take over various ED programs, such as the Department of the Interior, Treasury, Health and Human Services, Labor, and State.
Rounds’ bill aligns with President-elect Donald Trump’s campaign promise to end the ED, citing its growth into an oversized bureaucracy since its creation in 1979. The senator criticizes the ED’s budget size, per-student spending, and dropping standardized test scores as evidence of its ineffectiveness. However, educators and education lobbyists in South Dakota are concerned about the impact of cutting the ED, as it provides over $540 million annually to the state’s education budget.
Federal funds from the ED make up a significant portion of South Dakota’s education budget, with about 40.9% in fiscal year 2022. If the ED is fully cut, the state could miss out on hundreds of millions of dollars in funding. However, it is uncertain how much funding would be affected if the ED programs are shifted to other federal departments as proposed in Rounds’ legislation. The impact of this bill on South Dakota’s education system and federal funding remains a developing story.
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