It’s Time To End Federal Control Of Education And Restore Parental Authority

Authored by Sam Sorbo via American Greatness,

For decades, Americans have watched as federal involvement in education expanded, ballooning into a behemoth bureaucracy that imposes top-down mandates while divorcing parents from their rightful role as the primary educators of their children, while failing to achieve academic success for students.

If we are serious about fixing our children’s education, we must restore parental authority and end federal control of education.

America’s Founding Fathers never intended for Washington, D.C., to dictate how children in Kansas or Kentucky learn to read, write, and think. Education was, and should be, a local and parental matter. President Donald Trump rightly stated in Executive Order 13985, Combating Race and Sex Stereotyping, “The experiment of controlling American education through federal programs and dollars…has plainly failed our children, our teachers, and our families.” That failure is clearly documented by the National Assessment of Educational Progress (NAEP), often referred to as “The Nation’s Report Card.” Even before the COVID-19 pandemic, NAEP scores had stagnated or declined. Today, nearly 40% of fourth graders read below basic level, despite record federal funding. Billions of taxpayer dollars have produced declining literacy.

It’s not just ineffective—it’s indefensible.

Federal education initiatives have repeatedly promised results, especially for low-income students, but have failed to deliver. Programs like Title I and Head Start have cost hundreds of billions of dollars over the years with no consistent academic gains to show for them. Similarly, federal control over college grants and loans has inflated tuition and buried young Americans under a mountain of debt.

The evidence is clear: centralized, bureaucratic control undermines education.

As the founder of the “They’re YOUR Kids Foundation,” I work with parents every day who feel helpless. The system fails their children academically and often undermines their values. If we truly want to empower families, we must strip away the federal red tape and hand the reins back to those who know and love their children best: parents.

Representative Barry Moore of Alabama has proposed legislation (H.R. 2691, “Eliminate the Department of Education Act,” Congress.gov) to eliminate USED and redirect education funding based on what residents in each state pay in federal income taxes. But simply shifting USED’s functions to other agencies, as some proposals suggest, won’t solve the problem—it just moves the bureaucracy around.

That’s why I support the US Parents Involved in Education (USPIE) Blueprint: a five-step plan to close the U.S. Department of Education and return education governance to the states. The Blueprint is simple, sensible, and long overdue:

1. Return all program management and funding to the states.

2. Repeal laws like the Every Student Succeeds Act (ESSA) that enable federal overreach.

3. Privatize college loan programs through local financial institutions for increased accountability.

4. Eliminate all divisions and spending within USED.

5. Reduce federal tax collection so states retain education funds directly.

We have a singular opportunity to implement meaningful change, including a federal tax credit system that empowers parents to direct their own children’s education. Under this proposal:

• Parents who homeschool or choose private education would receive a Child Tax Credit equal to the federal per-pupil expenditure.

• Federal taxpayers of households with children attending government schools would prompt their per-pupil allocation to be block-granted to their respective states.

This model respects choice while avoiding the pitfalls of government entanglement. Voucher programs, while well-intentioned, often bring government regulation with them. The 1980 Supreme Court ruling involving Hillsdale College affirmed that any institution accepting federal funds—even indirectly through student aid—is subject to federal control. [Grove City College v. Bell, 465 U.S. 555 (1984)] That’s the Trojan horse we must avoid.

We must stop pretending we can reform federal education mandates and instead recognize them for what they are: unconstitutional, ineffective, and dangerous to parental rights.

As a mother who homeschooled three children, I know firsthand the value of individualized learning guided by a parent who knows their child’s needs and aspirations. Education is not simply the memorization of facts or test preparation. It is the formation of character, virtue, curiosity, and conviction. That formation is best entrusted to families—not bureaucrats in Washington.

President Trump’s 2025 executive order declared that closing the Department of Education would “restore the proper role of families and local governments in education.” But that can only happen if we also change the funding structure and remove all federal strings. If not, we risk replacing one failed model with another, abandoning the nation’s most precious resource, and ultimately forfeiting our very future.

It’s time to reject the lie that Washington knows best. Parents are not the problem. They are the solution. Local communities, not federal mandates, are best equipped to nurture the next generation of citizens. And education must once again become the deeply personal, values-rooted family journey it was meant to be.

We have a roadmap. We have legislation. And most importantly, we have an awakening of parents across this country who are saying, Enough is enough.

Let’s seize this moment to make education truly free—by making it family-led.