A Republican congressman recently told William McKenzie, an editorial columnist for the Dallas Morning News, “that one challenge to getting the No Child Left Behind Act renewed this year is that some in his party still believe the federal government shouldn’t stick its nose into educating kids.”
I’m impressed. Actually, I’d like a list of names and addresses so I can write and thank them for their continued respect of our Constitution and the fundamental principle of states’ rights in educational matters. The rest of the editorial is a rambling attack against conservatives holding this view based on nothing but the importance of education.
Representative Pete Hoekstra appears to be one of these unpopular Republicans.
“With No Child Left Behind we shifted down the road toward federal government education,” he said. “We are now on the road to a national curriculum, national accountability, national testing…and then we will also have a process of federally mandated corrections standards for those who don’t meet the standards.” Hoekstra added, “Every school in the country will begin to look exactly the same. Say goodbye to local control, and say hello to federal government schools.” CNSNews.com
We’ve only been working on that since the 1800s. He will be introducing his proposal, the Academic Partnerships Lead Us to Success Act of 2007, next week. The main difference between this and No Child Left Behind? It will limit federal oversight and allow states to “assume full responsibility for the education needs of its students.” If only we could get away from the federal funding, as well. Actually, the more I think about it, the less money a school district receives from sources outside its own district, the more dependent it is on families in that district. And the more pressure there is to meet the demands within the district as opposed to whatever educational fad is sweeping through the universities.
But maybe that is wishful thinking.
Even with funding at current levels, the bill is unlikely to pass. As Neal McCloskey, a political analyst with the Center for Educational Freedom at the Cato Institute, points out,
Federal education programs live or die by whether or not they work politically, not academically. [ibid.]
And politics, according to former House Majority Leader Dick Armey (R-TX), “is a curious form of juvenile delinquency.”
Related Tags: education, NCLB, A Plus Act, public school
Principled Discovery is a place to stop and discuss news and information related to faith, family and particularly education. Pour yourself a cup of tea and join the conversation! 
Dana, I really enjoy your writing. You said somewhere else on your site that you are about 200 years behind in your politics. I like that! Getting government out of education is probably not going to happen, but surely there is some ground to be taken back here and there. At least if public education in the U.S. continues to worsen as it has, and most likely will continue to do, the government will be more willing to do something radically different. Maybe the economy will get so dreadfully bad, that in order to save billions of dollars, the feds completely pull of out education. =)
The problem is the same one as Social Security, in a way. You get so far down the road with a program that was never intended to be forever, and how in the world do you go back? People are so dependent on the system that they don’t know how to take care of themselves anymore.
So it is with education. Now that (how many?) generations have given over their responsibility to train up their own children, who even knows how to do it anymore? The majority don’t know.
My prayer is that the Holy Spirit would impress on the hearts of parents a burden to take back their rights and responsibilities.
Blessings!
Jennifer, diaryof1.com
Thanks, Jennifer!
I was talking to my dad about this situation recently and basic ideas which seem SO simple. But imagine a candidate whose sole platform was cutting federal spending on every area not granted in the Constitution.
He’d never win. I think.
I fear that a serious downturn in the economy will have the same effect it had during the Depression…massive government spending in order to “jump start” the economy. Sometimes it seems hopeless.
Then again, back in (’94?), the Republican Party won a major victory on a promise and a vision that they drifted from pretty quickly. Reagan also had huge popularity for similar ideas. Now that it is difficult to distinguish between the R’s and the D’s, they are losing validity.
You mean there is someone in Washington that gets it? Hmm.. that’s incredible..
(actually Ron Paul from Texas also says similar stuff..I think he’d like to dump the Dept. of Education)