What role should the Feds have in schools?
Later this year Congress will rewrite the federal No Child Left Behind Act and there’s been a lot of discussion about placing stricter rules on teacher quality and academic standards.
President Obama campaigned on these issues and Education Secretary Arne Duncan has mentioned them during telephone conferences with education writers.
Many of you on this blog have said we need higher quality academic standards for students. Some also have said teacher quality must be improved so that the weak are pushed out and the strong are rewarded.
But are these issues the federal government should control?
No Child Left Behind increased the federal government’s role in education. Obama’s stimulus package extended it and it looks like this administration isn’t stopping.
Here in Georgia we see the Legislature passing bills every year that usurp local control over education.
When did education stop being an issue handled locally? Has this change improved or weakened education?
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56 comments Add your comment
SET
April 20th, 2009
4:23 pm
The operation of the Federal Government is governed by the Federal Constitution. In that it’s clearly stated that it only has the powers enumerated, all else belongs to the state governments. Education is not one of the federal powers. So it doesn’t matter what Congress thinks or what they want, ditto the Executive Branch. The Feds have no power and no business doing anything with education, primary, secondary or university level (other than the service academies and the DC schools which is theirs to run).
V for Vendetta
April 20th, 2009
5:43 pm
SET is back!!
RF
April 20th, 2009
10:39 pm
Because Big Brother (aka the Bush administration) told us we needed federally controlled accountability, we jumped on it. Clearly the federal government can’t fix the problems in education either. We need nationally agreed upon standards for curricula and teacher quality (which we basically have already), but the control of the school needs to remain local. When parents feel they don’t have to participate or have no real voice, they sit back and do nothing. All of the problems mentioned here go back to loss of community, and the dissociation of the school as a part of the community. Increase community involvement and you have a successful school. Create apathy and the notion that the school is controlled by some mystical organization above us, and you lose parental and community involvement and erode success.
Sarah H
April 22nd, 2009
7:24 am
What role should the Feds have in schools? I think it depends on how federal money goes into the school.
Sarah H
April 22nd, 2009
7:25 am
how much federal money – oops
jim d
April 22nd, 2009
2:42 pm
OH DEAR!! Sarah,
what would you suggest we do with this pesky bit of writing?
“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”