Get rid of the Department of Education?

I can remember reading somewhere (although I can't quite remember where) that some people were wanting to abolish the US Department of Education. Is this true and who would want to do such a thing?

To me it seems that only communists would want to do something like that.

Ronald Reagan, during his campaign for president in 1980, promised to abolish several cabinet departments, Education and HUD (Housing and Urban Development) among them. Republicans purport to believe in smaller government, cheaper government. But in practice it doesn't always work out that way.

Republicans and conservatives don't like the whole idea of public education (or public -anything-). But also you have to realize that we in the US have always bragged that we had 'social mobility'--a person born in a log cabin can grow up to be president, a baby born in poverty can become a doctor or lawyer or billionaire. The path for social mobility is public education! That's another reason conservatives dislike the idea.

I think their real attitude is that the children of the poor, including the working poor, don't -deserve- a good education. Privatizing the system will ensure kids get only as good an education, and opportunities in life, as is merited by their parents' wealth. And also that a nice profit can be made by well-connected corporations instead of paying good salaries to teachers.

I believe that the dept of education has done more to find excuses for the lack of education than it ever did to educate. I think that the education of children is primarily the responsibility of the parents, and they should be allowed to do it and control it. There is a need for public schools, but they should be controlled on a local level, and funded on a local level. Teachers should be hired by the individual schools, and if they cannot teach, they should be gotten rid of. In no case should any school system be larger than one high school and the feeder schools that it serves. If this was the case, I think we would find a lot more involvement by the parents and the community. I don't think that schools should be in the business of enforcing any public health issues, or any social welfare issues. They are there to educate our children, not to monitor our parenting, or our health care, or the practice or lack of it of our religion.
The only time that the government, state or federal should get involved is if a particular school system cannot afford to pay teachers. In that case, perhaps the school system could petition the various governments for grants, but only with provisions for being able to afford those teachers in the future. This is what is required of individuals getting federal moneys, and I see no reason why it shouldn't apply to schools or for that matter, any other organization that asks for help.
I have no problem with an occasional hand up, but I have a real problem with an unlimited hand out that comes out of my pocket.
I have personally had to deal with various school systems for the last 25 years. All of them have fallen under the control of the Dept. of Education, and without exception, education has been an afterthought. If the kids learned anything, it was by accident. The important things were; had the kid had thier shots, how much did the parents make, (this determined whether the school got extra funding because a majority of the kids were on free lunch), how many days a year the kids showed up.(they get paid by attendence) and what sports programs were going to available.