There's a moral obligation to fund education at the federal level? You have a warped definition of morality.
There's a moral obligation for We, The People to manage educating our Future on some level. Under current circumstances, cutting funding without a plan to transition the responsibility back to the states is short-sighted and stupid.
How many people could we get off welfare and out of prison if We, The Peeps used education as a tool to find something for every one of Mom's Little Red, White & Blue Bastards to do that's productive?
Apparently macro-managing 'education' from the top down isn't working, but the answer isn't to cut the funding and ass-u-me that education, as an industry, will land on its feet and serve the next generation effectively and efficiently.
Step one is not slashing funding, step one is fair and simple federal taxes. Only then will the states know what kind of a tax burden they can impose on their local economies to fund 'education' in the various regions.
Fair and simple federal taxes will also strip a LOT of corruptible power from congress in the form of favoritism through complexity and paperwork.
The federal corporate tax should be $0.
The states should be free to use tax incentives and disincentives to attract and repel human industrial activity. The People who live in the shadow are ultimately responsible for the messes that corporations leave behind.