'Tea party' hopefuls target Education Department

'Tea party' hopefuls target Education Department
Candidates renew call to abolish Carter-era agency
By Joseph Weber
The Washington Times
7:58 p.m., Monday, October 25, 2010

Conservatives have talked wistfully for years about eliminating the Education Department, but a host of Republican "tea party" candidates this election year are saying it's time to move beyond talk and force Congress to vote.

From West Virginia to Kentucky to Nevada, GOP Senate candidates have said they favor elimination of the Cabinet office, created as a separate department by President Carter in 1979 to elevate the federal government's profile on what had been considered a primarily local concern.

Senate candidate Rand Paul, in his Republican primary campaign in Kentucky, was among the first tea-party-backed candidates to revive the idea that the 30-year-old agency had failed students and that the states could do a better job.

"I think I would rather have local school boards, teachers, parents, people ... deciding about your schools and not have it in Washington," he said in a recent debate with the Democratic candidate, state Attorney General Jack Conway.

He has been joined by GOP Senate nominees Sharron Angle in Nevada, John Raese in West Virginia and Mike Lee in Utah, all of whom say they want to see the federal agency abolished. At least 10 Republican tea party candidates have either considered or called for an end to the agency, which for fiscal 2010 had a discretionary budget of $46.8 billion.

FULL STORY
http://www.washingtontimes.com/news/2010/oct/25/tea-party-hopefuls-target-education-department/