U.S. Rep. Matt Gaetz is getting crossways with the Republican House leadership over what comes next if the GOP takes the majority in November.
On Sunday, Gaetz issued a couple of tweets opposing the education agenda in House Minority Leader Kevin McCarthy’s “Commitment to America” plan.
One of the 18 provisions in McCarthy’s plans says GOP lawmakers will “advance the Parents’ Bill of Rights, recover lost learning from school closures, and expand parental choice so over a million more students can receive the education their parents know is best.”
McCarthy promoted the plan on Twitter on Sunday, saying “Republicans have a plan to catch our kids up from learning lost during the pandemic. We have a plan to ensure fairness in school sports. And we have a plan to put parents back in charge of their kids’ education.”
Tennessee GOP Rep. Mark Green followed up with his own tweet, which ran with a meme saying “Concerned parents are not domestic parents.”
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“Our Parents’ Bill of Rights is going to ensure that parents know exactly what their children are being taught in the classroom and have a say in their education,” Green added.
Gaetz, a Fort Walton Beach Republican, fired back at both comments, saying it was the wrong course for the GOP.
In response to McCarthy, Gaetz said, “I’m a Republican. I have ZERO plans to increase the federal government’s involvement in education. We should ABOLISH the Federal Department of Education.”
As for Green’s point, Gaetz added, “Call me old fashioned, but I’m actually for ending the Federal Government’s role in education – not enhancing it with new congress-vested ‘rights.’ Abolish the Federal Department of Education. That should be our #CommitmentToAmerica. Alas, instead we meme lame ‘commitments.’”
Republican leaders have repeatedly campaigned to dismantle or dissolve the Education Department, which was created in 1979. That includes presidents Ronald Reagan and Donald Trump.
Last year, GOP Rep. Thomas Massie of Kentucky introduced a bill to end the department. It contained one sentence: “The Department of Education shall terminate on December 31, 2022.”
But the department has shown stout resilience in the face of such efforts. Yet its continued existence only raises questions about its alleged mission.
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Last month, in an article on this topic published by the education news website The74Million.org, David Cleary, the Republican staff director for the Senate’s Committee on Health, Education, Labor, and Pensions, noted, “The U.S. Department of Education doesn’t establish a curriculum — thank God — doesn’t establish education standards, doesn’t establish tests, and doesn’t establish criteria for institutions of higher education.”
In essence, he added, “It really is just a grant-making entity with a huge bureaucracy.”
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