The Wednesday, March 12, edition of the Alpena News contained a commentary column “Protect Schools From Cuts” authored by Alexandra Stamm of the Michigan League for Public Policy. Ms. Stamm was complaining about the expected funding cuts to the budget of the federal Department of Education (DOE) and what she expected the impacts to Michigan from those cuts. She reports the DOE has two main roles impacting Michigan public schools. The first is providing grants which amount to about $2.3B to Michigan. The second role according to Stamm is funding for students with disabilities, amounting to over $460M. Her numbers, that would be about $2.8B. The 2024 DOE total budget was $268B, or 4% of federal spending.

Article 1, Section 8 of the Constitution enumerates the power Congress has for collecting taxes, duties, excises, etc. to provide for the Common Defense and General Welfare of the United States. Nowhere in that extensive list of powers is monies for education or public schools. Amendment X to the Constitution states “The powers not delegated to the United States by the Constitution, nor prohibited by it to the States, are reserved to the States respectively, or to the people.” Therefore, the federal government has no authority to tax for funding of the DOE. School funding is the individual state’s responsibility.

We have already seen numerous examples of totally criminal spending across government uncovered by the Department of Government Efficiency (DOGE). The DEI programs cut from the DOE budget amount to $101M alone. Tax dollars sent to Washington, D.C. are washed through the bureaucracy there and then what’s left is distributed back to the states. Tax dollars illegally collected by the feds in Michigan for the DOE should be kept in Michigan where we the people have better control of those tax dollars.

MIKE LEOW,

Rogers City