6/09/2009

A Federal Role in Education?


As we stand on the brink of national standards for education, perhaps we should take a step back and look at the the Federal role in education and what it has done to education so far.

The United States Constitution 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.” Nowhere in the Constitution is the federal government given the power to regulate or fund elementary or secondary education. The federal role in education is a violation of the 10th amendment of the United States Constitution.

The federal government formed the Department of Education (ED) in 1979

Some politicians warned against the ED.

“No matter what anyone says, the Department of Education will not just write checks to local school boards. They will meddle in everything. I do not want that.” Representative Pat Schroeder (D-CO) 7

“A national Department may actually impede the innovation of local programs as it attempts to establish uniformity throughout the Nation.” Representative Joseph Early (D-MA) 8

“We will be minimizing the roles of local and State education officials; we recognize that the States are responsible for the education policies of the children in the is country.” Representative Shirley Chisholm (D-NY) 9

“This is a back-room deal, born out of a squalid politics. Everything we had thought we would not see happening to education is happening here.” Senator Patrick Moynihan (D-NY) 6

Every dollar parents send to Washington is a dollar they don't have to spend directly on their children's education. Most education tax dollars sent to Washington fund the federal bureaucracy; far less than half of each dollar is ever returned to local schools. More importantly, federal school dollars come with strings attached. The more money we give to education bureaucrats, the more power they have to dictate how local schools are run.

When federal spending increases, local schools are forced to do whatever it takes to get their share, even if this means adopting one size fits all policies mandated in Washington. In other words, federal money is used as a club to force schools to surrender more and more of their decision making authority to Washington.

Although statistics show that only seven percent of an average school’s budget is subsidized by the feds, local districts complain about massive paperwork and red tape required to receive these skimpy funds. A 1991 survey of Ohio school districts found that each district was required to fill out an average of 330 forms, of which 157 were from the state and 173 were from the federal government.4 The federal government, responsible for only seven percent of the budget, causes 55% of the red tape.



The List of Programs:
Goodling stated, “This massive list of federal education programs clearly demonstrates what many of us had suspected for quite some time that Washington is out of control and out of touch.” Pointing out a huge stack of papers required for all the Education Department’s programs, McKeon remarked, “The Clintons say that it takes a village to raise a child, but that is only because it takes a village to fill out this paper work.”
Obviously, ever-increasing federal control over our schools has failed the nation's children and lowered educational standards.

Parents and teachers know what is best for their schools at the local level. The key to reforming public education in America is returning local control back to our public schools.

NOTES
Berthoud, Dr. John E., Who Got It Right? What Proponents and Opponents of the Creation of the Department of Education Promised & Predicted, The Alexis de Tocqueville Institution, January 18, 1996, p.11.
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