Other: Closing All Those Departments: What Happens To The People Who Work For Them?

[Fort Lauderdale]

Ron Paul wants to close the Departments of Energy, Commerce, Interior, Education, and Housing and Urban Development. My question is, what would happen to all the people that work for those departments? They will be unemployed. Will they get a severance package from the U.S. government (President Ron Paul) until they find other jobs? How many people would be out of work if all these departments get closed?

http://politics.slashdot.org/story/...ts-axing-5-us-federal-departments-and-budgets

"Presidential hopeful Ron Paul's new proposal to slash federal spending would wipe out large chunks of the government's research portfolio. The congressman from Texas and Republican candidate has unveiled a budget plan to reduce the deficit that would eliminate five federal departments: Energy, Commerce, Interior, Education, and Housing and Urban Development. In one fell swoop, such a step would erase, among other programs, the Energy Department's $5-billion Office of Science, the $4.5-billion National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration, the $750-million National Institute of Standards and Technology, and the $1.1-billion U.S. Geological Survey."

 

[specsaregood]

He claims that nobody will be laid off, people will be transferred and jobs will be removed via attrition.

 

[Fort Lauderdale]

Where exactly will they be transferred? Are the people who work for the Department of Education qualified to teach in elementary, high school or college? Do they have license, certification? Does the department of education produce SATs and other standardized tests?

 

[specsaregood]

Where exactly will they be transferred? Are the people who work for the Department of Education qualified to teach in elementary, high school or college?

No, but they are probably qualified enough to clean toilets.

Does the department of education produce SATs and other standardized tests?

No.

 

[SharedSacrifice]

He claims that nobody will be laid off, people will be transferred and jobs will be removed via attrition.

Please...someone tell me that the above isn't even remotely true...

 

[keh10]

Hopefully they are smart enough to start saving some of that artificially increased income and are ready to find a real job like the rest of us.

 

[outspoken]

I worked 5 years for the dept of veterans affairs. You could cut the employees in half and not skip a beat... Probably would be more efficient. I am sure the same can be said about the other depts. A large portion of these people will struggle competing in the private sector for jobs. Many govt agencies are glorified jobs welfare even though they don't want to admit it.

 

[Feelgood]

They will lose their overly bloated salaries, that we can not afford and should not have to, through attrition. Some will go to other departments, others will go back to the private sector and work for a real wage.

 

[InTradePro]

Where exactly will they be transferred? Are the people who work for the Department of Education qualified to teach in elementary, high school or college?

No, but they are probably qualified enough to clean toilets.

LOL

Plenty of governement cleaners already you know.

What I believe will happen initally is teachers and other staff would remain at the school with a wage but the school gets no fed funding for expenses outside wages. So the school then either gets(if it hasn't already) state funding or become a business before it can invest.

 

[giovannile07]

Does the department of education produce SATs and other standardized tests?

The SATs are definitely not made by the Department of Education, if it were, I am pretty sure it would be free instead of having to pay about around $40-60 depending whether you register late and it costs $10 each to send each score to different schools (forgot the numbers, but I think it's around that). Other standardized test are handed out by states I believe since each of the standardized test I took were specific to my state and included the state's name in it.

 

[MelissaWV]

Where exactly will they be transferred? Are the people who work for the Department of Education qualified to teach in elementary, high school or college? Do they have license, certification? Does the department of education produce SATs and other standardized tests?

You don't see these questions as indicative of a fundamental problem?

The DoE is full of people who are not qualified to educate, but are making decisions about education.