One of the greatest failures of centralized government in the United States is the collapse of education quality, and the root cause is centralization itself—embodied in the Department of Education (DoE). At its core, the purpose of the DoE is to regulate teachers, ensuring that they educate students adequately and efficiently. However, the reality is that the DoE does not improve education; it regulates it into stagnation. The Problem: Centralization Breeds Regulatory Capture By imposing federal mandates and guidelines, the DoE forces independent school districts to comply with a one-size-fits-all bureaucracy, removing local control and adaptability. But more importantly, this centralization makes the system vulnerable to regulatory capture, where the very entities being regulated—teachers' unions—end up shaping the rules in their own interest. Because teachers’ unions are legally protected and politically entrenched, they become the primary voice for education policy at the federal level, not parents, students, or even highly effective teachers. Their goal is not educational excellence, but to protect their members, including the least competent among them. Unions push for minimum standards to be as low as possible so that even the worst-performing teachers remain employed. Since unions set the bar based on protecting the lowest common denominator, the overall standard declines over time, as the system is structured to accommodate mediocrity rather than reward excellence. Regulatory bloating increases as federal funding becomes tied to compliance with union-backed mandates, growing the bureaucracy but not improving student outcomes. The Inevitable Decline Over decades, this system ensures continual degradation of education quality. As regulatory capture deepens: 1. Federal standards prioritize bureaucracy over educational outcomes. Teachers spend more time following compliance requirements than focusing on effective teaching methods. 2. Standardization eliminates adaptability. Schools become less responsive to local needs because their hands are tied by federal mandates. 3. Public schools become bureaucratic machines. They focus more on securing funding and compliance rather than innovation and effectiveness. This is not a failure of education itself—it is a failure of centralization. The more control is consolidated in Washington, the more the education system serves the bureaucracy rather than students. The Solution: Decentralization and Local Control The U.S. does not need a federal education department. It needs a decentralized system where states, local communities, and parents reclaim control over education. States should set their own education policies, allowing for competition and innovation in school systems. School districts should have autonomy, ensuring that decisions about curriculum, teacher evaluation, and funding are made at the community level, not by bureaucrats in Washington. Parents should have direct influence over school policies, rather than having their voices filtered through massive, unaccountable institutions. Just as Sweden and Switzerland regulate their industries faster and more rationally by keeping decision-making at the national or local level rather than centralizing it under an EU-like structure, the U.S. should return education to state and local control. By eliminating the DoE, we remove the primary mechanism for regulatory capture, force teachers’ unions to engage with state governments rather than a single federal bureaucracy, and allow schools to set higher standards that reflect the needs of their communities rather than the lowest common denominator. Education is Failing Because It is Over-Regulated The Department of Education is not an engine of educational improvement—it is a bureaucratic bottleneck. Federal control ensures that education is optimized for bureaucracy, not learning. The only path to fixing U.S. education is to remove the centralized structure that enables regulatory capture, lower standards, and entrenched inefficiency. If the U.S. truly values educational excellence, it must abolish the DoE and return control to states, local communities, and parents—where accountability, adaptability, and real education reform can take place.