When the U.S. Supreme Court ruled that the Biden administration lacked the authority to cancel some $430 billion in student loan debt, the Department of Education (DOE), under the direction of Secretary of Education Miguel Cardona, immediately issued directives to circumvent the court’s ruling. When the court ruled to end affirmative action, here too, the DOE began a circumvention attempt, making suggestions about ways the schools could work around the ruling and effectively keep affirmative action in place.

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With no fear of reprisal, the DOE freely exerts its authority over the highest court in our nation. More important, the DOE’s liberal agenda daily reaches the hearts and minds of the roughly 50 million students enrolled in America’s 100,000 public schools. How did this happen, and how do we stop it?

The Department of Education

The DOE emerged as a power broker in American education on May 4, 1980, when President Jimmy Carter introduced the department, complete with a cabinet seat, fulfilling his election-campaign promise to the National Education Association (NEA) that he would establish such a department. The DOE immediately began working with the NEA.

IFA perceived that the synergy generated by the combined liberal policies of the two organizations would bring about an exponential change in American education. In a letter to its intercessor members, IFA wrote: “The larger and more serious objection is that a new DOE, for all practical purposes, would be little more than an extension of the NEA.” This early perception of the possible evil that these two organizations working together could perpetuate, proved in retrospect to be far worse than anyone had imagined.

 The National Education Association

The NEA was founded in 1857 as a professional organization. In 1870, after merging with two other educational organizations, the NEA became politically ambitious, working its way into a position to control American education. In 1967, the organization became a full-fledged labor union.

The NEA had applied for a federal charter in 1906, which President Teddy Roosevelt granted. This charter, still in effect today, gives the organization a nonprofit status allowing for tax breaks while maintaining lobbying status, allowing them to input into pollical issues concerning education. Realizing the value of a federal DOE, the NEA began, as early as 1920, to push for a federal DOE and succeeded by getting the Smith-Towner Bill passed. The bill began the movement for public education, requiring all children to attend public schools while prohibiting private schools. The bill also led the way for the creation of a department in the government to be called the DOE, complete with a Secretary of Education. A move they hoped would ensure federal funding for public schools.

Today the NEA is the only labor union in the U.S. that has a federal charter, and it’s also the only union with its own cabinet-level department. In 1979, IFA wrote to its intercessors to urge them “to first pray for God to intervene to prevent the formation of a DOE, and secondly to write objection letters to senators and representatives (IFA Newsletter, May 1, 1979, Vol. 6, No. 5).

Fortunately for intercessors, the DOE and the NEA possess some vulnerabilities that could prove to be their undoing. The DOE is unconstitutional on its face, and the NEA’s federal charter can be terminated. 

The Department of Education is Unconstitutional

The Tenth Amendment 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. Education, which is never mentioned in the Constitution, is viewed as a right that is left to the states. Our Founding Fathers thought that the separation of rights helped maintain a balance of power between the states and the federal government. At present, every state constitution includes language that mandates the establishment of a public education system. Clearly, our Founders gave the states the legacy to set up their own education system, separate from any federal interference, thereby allowing greater control to the state and local governments.

If Congress acts, it is possible to dismantle the DOE. In 2020, The Heritage Foundation published a paper titled Correcting Carter’s Mistake: Removing Cabinet Status from the U.S. DOE. Authors Lindsey Burke and Jonathan Butcher argue that “after 40 years, there is scant evidence that the DOE has benefited American students or used taxpayer money effectively.” Therefore, they sum up, the DOE should be dismantled. President Reagan wanted when he succeeded Carter. He looked for lawmakers who would dismantle the department, but he found no one willing to carry any bills forward. But today, if anything, there seems to be only greater desire and willingness to dismantle the DOE, as Donald Trump has promised he will do if re-elected in 2024.

The NEA’s Federal Charter Can Be Revoked

When the NEA was granted nonprofit status, the organization presented itself “as an association of teachers and administrators whose primary purpose is to provide an excellent education to children; and to serve the best interests of parents, teachers and administrators entrusted with the education and care of those children. That stated purpose, noble as it may seem, no longer defines an organization now designated a labor union. So, stripping the NEA of its federal charter is imperative for breaking its inappropriate power over the public schools.

In 2016, Charles W. Baird published an excellent paper in the Government Union Review detailing the way to revoke that charter. The idea gained traction in 2022, when the NEA created an enemies list made up of parents willing to stand up at school board meetings against the education establishment’s tactics. This unjust move to ban parents from voicing their objections to the NEA’s liberal agenda proved too much for some Republican officials: Senators James Lankford, R-Okla.; and Marsha Blackburn, R-Tenn., introduced a Senate bill to revoke the NEA charter. Representatives Scott Fitzgerald, R-Wis.; and Jim Banks, R-Ind., introduced a similar bill in the House.

IFA has been sounding the intercessory alarm for 50 years now. Today, the ministry continues to alert intercessors on the issues of vital importance to our nation. The ungodly agenda of the NEA and the DOE being thus exposed, it can be stopped. Through our ceaseless prayers, we can surely break the satanic stronghold over this nation’s students — and change the course of America.

Will you keep interceding for the educational system and for the hearts and minds of our youth?

Nancy Huff is an educator with a mission to equip believers to pray strategically for the cultural mountain of education. She is the author of Taking the Mountain of Education: A Strategic Prayer Guide to Transform American Schools; Safety Zone: Scriptural Prayers to Revolutionize Your School; and Decrees for Your School. She leads groups for prayer at key educational locations across the U.S. Find out more by visiting https://takingthemountainofeducation.com.