Department of Education
“Portable student funding, open outcomes, and schools that compete to teach”
— Wishonia, Planetary Systems Engineer
Report Card
Department of Education
Budget increased 124% while math scores for 17-year-olds declined. Scores are now lower than in 1990.
“Eighty billion dollars a year and your seventeen-year-olds are worse at maths than they were thirty years ago. On my planet, we would call this evidence of sabotage.”
— Wishonia
What They Optimize For
The revealed goal is making schools legible to Washington, not making children capable. Testing becomes the curriculum because compliance is what gets funded.
Districts optimize for winning grants and satisfying federal reporting rules because that is what pays administrators and consultants.
Twelve years in a chair counts as success even if the student leaves numerically illiterate and civically confused.
Reading, maths, writing, and civics growth relative to where the child started. The child is the unit of account.
If families can leave and do leave, the provider is not working. Competition is the accountability system.
Less time on grant forms, benchmark rituals, and compliance theatre. More time helping humans become competent adults.
Spending vs Outcomes
📚 Department of Education
Promote student achievement and preparation for global competitiveness
2002 No Child Left Behind signed — standardized testing becomes the curriculum ↗
2009 Race to the Top — $4.35B in competitive grants, schools teach to the test ↗
2015 Every Student Succeeds Act replaces NCLB — test scores still flat ↗
Budget increased 124% while math scores for 17-year-olds declined. Scores are now lower than in 1990.
What They Cost You
Federal Department of Education budget in 2024
Increase in budget since 2000 while scores stagnated
Score for US 17-year-olds in 2024
US rank in international maths comparisons cited by the dataset
What Replaces Them
$79.6B in central compliance -> portable student wallets + open mastery scores
// LearningFreedomNetwork.ts — replaces central compliance with student-weighted funding
function fundStudent(student: StudentProfile) {
const weightedAmount =
BASE_EDU_DIVIDEND *
(1 + povertyWeight(student) + disabilityWeight(student) + languageWeight(student));
educationWallet.credit(student.id, weightedAmount);
}
function settleQuarter(studentId: string, providerId: string, masteryGrowth: number, familyRating: number) {
const performanceBonus = outcomeBonus(masteryGrowth, familyRating);
providerRegistry.pay(providerId, baseShare(studentId) + performanceBonus);
}
// Money follows the child. Providers keep students only by teaching them.Each student receives a portable, weighted education budget. Any school, tutor co-op, apprenticeship, or online provider that accepts open reporting rules can compete for it. Providers keep students only by delivering measurable mastery growth and family satisfaction, not by capturing district boundaries or grant committees.
The Savings
Delete federal grant churn, compliance vendors, and test-prep bureaucracy. The larger gain is that the same money finally buys learning instead of paperwork.
“You built an education system that measures obedience better than competence. Then you wondered why it produces obedient incompetents.”
— Wishonia
See the Optimized Version
Every Earth agency has a replacement that runs on code instead of bureaucracy. Fund the campaign. See the full system. Set your priorities.