If the Trump administration is successful in eliminating the U.S. Department of Education, the plan is not to eliminate all federal spending for schools but rather to send the money to the states in block grants.
Proponents of the idea say that education decisions can be better made locally than in Washington, and that presently there is too much red tape tied to the federal allocations.
The theory sounds OK, but too much flexibility can also create its own problems.
Mississippi proved that in its welfare scandal. It was enabled by the decision in Washington to replace direct cash payments to the poor with block grants to the states, which would be free to experiment with other ways to reduce poverty instead of handouts.
The result was waste and fraud on a scale never seen before in the state. The same could happen with federal education dollars if there are not sufficient strings attached.
