Sheehy’s Plan for Education Includes Throwing Department of Ed ‘In the Trash’
By Keila Szpaller for the Daily Montanan
Republican U.S. Senate Candidate Tim Sheehy said at multiple campaign stops this year that he wants to do away with the U.S. Department of Education to save money — by “throwing it in the trash can” — and that education is one of his top three priorities.
“We have a Department of Education, which I don’t think we need anymore,” Sheehy said. “It should go away. That’ll save us $30 billion right there.”
Although he lobbed criticisms at public education from elementary schools all the way to college, his comments on the campaign trail offered more talking points from Project 2025 than they do specific plans that would benefit Montana, according to audio clips provided to the Daily Montanan.
In Billings, Sheehy shared part of his rationale for axing the Department of Education: “We formed that department so little Black girls could go to school down south, and we could have integrated schooling. We don’t need that anymore.”
According to the Office of Public Instruction, roughly 150,000 children attend public school in Montana; Kids Count data show 89.6% of students in kindergarten through 12th grade attend public school in Montana.
Data from OPI also show that at the school level, federal money accounts for roughly 12% of the funding per student.
Project 2025 is a plan designed by more than 100 conservative groups that includes a massive overhaul of the federal government. An analysis by the National Education Association said the plan would “gut” funding for education and hurt students who are the most vulnerable.
Lance Melton, head of the Montana School Boards Association, said federal dollars are significant in Montana for at least a couple of reasons.
He said they are especially important in areas with smaller taxable values, including some of the Native American reservations.
American Indian students graduate at about 64% compared to the overall population that’s eligible for free and reduced lunch at 72%, Melton said — or the average rate overall, which is in the high 80%-range.
Additionally, Melton said, the state gets $40 million alone to help students in public schools who have disabilities. The amount represents just 15% compared to the 40% it’s supposed to be, he said, but it’s more than zero.
“Fairly significant harm would be implemented in Montana’s public schools if we suddenly snapped our fingers and said, ‘No more federal funding of education,’” he said.
In a race being watched nationally with political control of the U.S. Senate in the balance, Sheehy is running to unseat U.S. Sen. Jon Tester, a Democrat and Montana’s senior senator seeking his fourth term. Recent polls show Sheehy pulling ahead of Tester, a farmer and former public school teacher himself.
Sheehy’s campaign did not respond to an interview request to discuss his plan for public education. In audio clips of his comments at six different events this year, he said the other two priorities for him are immigration and the crisis at the southern border, common political talking points.
His campaign website offers five sentences on the topic of education. However, the criticisms the Bozeman businessman levies at public education don’t always reflect the systems he’s fighting against, and his plan for solutions isn’t always clear.
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On his website, Sheehy said he supports parents “at the forefront” of their child’s education, “more choice,” and teaching children “how to think — not what to think.”
“We also need to get politics out of the classroom and end the woke social agenda infecting our schools,” Sheehy said. “ … Above all, we need leaders in Washington to stop things like drag queen story time from replacing the Lord’s Prayer and the Pledge of Allegiance in our classrooms.”
Drag performers who read books to children such as at ZooMontana in Billings have come under fire from Republicans in Montana and elsewhere.
A law designed to keep drag performers from reading to students in schools and libraries is in court and temporarily on hold; in June, a panel of the U.S. Ninth Circuit Court of Appeals questioned whether the ban is constitutional, and an order on the bill, House Bill 359, is pending.
Melton, however, said the Pledge of Allegiance is already required on a daily basis in public elementary schools, and on a weekly basis in upper grades: “There’s nobody trying to wipe that out.”
Because of decisions from the U.S. Supreme Court, he said, school districts can’t sponsor any form of religious exercise in the public schools. However, Melton said school districts can’t interfere with private expressions of faith by either students or staff.
Montana parents have asked for more “choice” in education as well, and in the 2023 Legislature, lawmakers passed at least a couple of bills that aimed to address that request.
One bill is in court. Another, which passed with bipartisan support in 2023, led to another 19 charter schools being approved this year through the Board of Public Education.
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At different campaign events, Sheehy gave other criticisms of public education that echo the GOP’s stance on social issues or offered a more sweeping agenda for federal agencies.
He said the Department of Education was pushing a curriculum that includes critical race theory; diversity, equity and inclusion; and “transgender, you know, you can choose your gender anytime; we won’t tell your parents.”
Critical race theory includes the idea that racism has shaped institutions in the United States and is part of this country’s history. The concept is roughly 40 years old and educators have said it underpins discussions around many topics, including Indian Education for All, or the teaching of American Indian heritage in Montana required by the state Constitution.
DEI policies aim to support more equitable student outcomes; in an action plan, the Department of Education said every student should be able to attend “an academically rigorous, well-rounded education in a safe and inclusive school.”
Sheehy, though, said students should go to shop class and learn to drill and change their oil to help them earn a living without going into debt instead. He suggested federal money for education should be provided to the states in the form of block grants to save money.
“Across the board, for many problems, we need to solve this by cutting out federal agencies,” Sheehy said.
The National Education Association analysis said Project 2025 calls for block grants to states with lax oversight and weakened regulation, and it said the result would be a strain on already tight public school budgets.
“We’re spending more on education, like as a country, than we ever had before, yet the output is the worst it’s ever been,” Sheehy said at one recent campaign stop.
He said the government needs to get out of education.
In his comments, Sheehy said one of the reasons he and mostly his wife home-school their children is because public schools aren’t teaching them the history of this country or “to believe in their faith,” and they aren’t “in line with our values.”
“We need to return faith and family to the classroom,” he said.
Sheehy’s criticisms extend to students who are thinking about college, too. He described the federal department as a “loan processing center for junk loans that can never be repaid,” and he criticized the federal debt relief program.
He said the “national education system” is meant to “indoctrinate and enslave,” and he described the results as he sees it.
“We got a bunch of over-educated, unemployable nincompoops,” Sheehy said.
According to a federal student aid database, both Montana State University in Bozeman and the University of Montana in Missoula had no students defaulting on loans from the 2021 and 2020 cohorts; for the 2019 classes, MSU had a default rate of 1.2% and UM had a 3% default rate.
Sheehy also said students should go into the trades and not to college to be indoctrinated or get degrees in “underwater basket weaving,” an old snub at the liberal arts. He said incentives help, but no one is giving incentives for students to be diesel mechanics.
According to the Montana University System, in Montana, all 16 campuses of Montana University System deliver trade and technical education, and those students also are eligible for federal loans. MSU Northern focuses on technical degrees and offers scholarships for students in diesel technology.
MUS data notes more than 80% of state resident graduates join the workforce in Montana; an MUS dashboard said the average salary for a graduate after five years is $55,917.
The MUS website said colleges and universities have partnerships with private businesses, and it said Gallatin College has one with Bridger Aerospace, which Sheehy and his brother founded, although MUS said the information is not current. (Sheehy resigned as CEO of Bridger Aerospace earlier this year, although a spokesperson declined to disclose whether he still holds shares in the company.)
In an email, MSU said the university currently isn’t offering its associate of applied science program in avionics electronics technology at Gallatin College MSU as it reevaluates workforce needs.
Of course he wants to get rid of the Department of Education. Less intelligent and less informed people are more likely to vote for him.