Before you have a hissy fit, this is not about how underpaid teachers are, how every dollar is an investment in our kids and nation’s future, etc.

We appreciate, respect and understand that. We are not anti-education. But we are concerned about how our federal bureaucrats are spending your hard-earned tax dollars.

We sat down with former state Superintendent of Education Mick Zais last week to talk about what he is doing in Washington as No. 2 man in the US Education Department. What he told us you should know about.

For example, he and his boss, Education Secretary Betsy DeVos, are doing everything they can to untangle 16 years of mandates, rules and regulations dictated to local school boards, administrators and teachers.

If you want to know why we have a teacher shortage and so many are leaving the classroom for other careers, think about the paperwork they have to take time from teaching to do.

The good news is that Washington is spending:

• $1 billion more this year for public and private school choice to give parents options on where their children can get the best education.

• $200 million for STEM – science, technology, engineering, and math – education.

The list goes on and on.

The bad news is that millions of dollars we send in taxes to Washington never make it back to our local classrooms.

For example, we employ 3,600 bureaucrats at the department At about $100,000 in payroll cost each, the math is staggering: $360 million a year.

With time off for holidays, vacation, etc., the average bureaucrat works about 225 days a year. That costs the taxpayers $1.6 million a day just to open the department each morning.

Do we need this much bureaucracy meddling in decisions our administrators and boards should make? Would we do better to invest that money in our teachers and local schools?

Why don’t we ask our Congressmen Joe Wilson, Lindsey Graham and Tim Scott?

Do we need this much bureaucracy meddling in our local school decisions?