They’re All Federal Educators Now
For decades, conservatives stood against big-government intrusions into American education. They defended local control of schooling, championed parental choice, and pushed to abolish the federal Department of Education. But then, tragedy struck: Republicans took power in Washington, and conservatives suddenly learned to love big government. Indeed, some are now so enamored of it that they are proposing what was once unthinkable: having the federal government set curricular standards for every public school in America.
This seems to happen with any political party that comes into power. Once they get there, they want to exert their control over the american people as much as possible. I think the only way out of this situation is to impose term limits upon senators and congressmen like we did the presidency.
Thursday, their idea got two huge endorsements. In a Washington Post op-ed, former U.S. secretaries of education William J. Bennett and Rod Paige seconded Fordham’s call for national standards and tests, paradoxically arguing, like Fordham, that because current federal policy is broken, we need much more federal control.
Yes, that makes perfect sense. We have a federal policy that is broken, what we need is more federal policy to fix it. That’s always worked in the past. I can see why the people in charge would be pushing this load of crap, but what I can’t see is why we the people keep swallowing it.
In light of that political reality, greater federal control over schooling is a hopeless solution to our education problems. Bennett and Paige almost admit as much in their Post piece, conceding that they are “painfully aware that national standards and tests are hard to get right—and even harder to get through Congress.”
These people would do well to learn Harry Brown’s 7 Vital Principles of Government.
Perhaps that pain needs to become a little more acute, because no matter how much conservatives wish it weren’t so, decades of monopolistic public schooling have proven that government will never provide desirable standards. Indeed, the numerous inherent problems of government are among the many reasons that the framers of the Constitution gave Washington no authority over education. They are also good reasons why Paige and Bennett should not simply dismiss the Constitution, as they did in their op-ed, on the grounds that, even though “the Constitution says nothing about education, in a world of fierce competition we can’t afford to pretend that the current system is getting us where we need to go.”
Please, someone needs to challenge the government’s authority over setting any kind of policy dealing with education. Until something like that happens, government will still keep trying to poke it’s nose where it doesn’t belong.
Of course the current system isn’t getting us where we need to go. But government control isn’t the solution, it’s the problem.
You can’t say it any better than that, so I’ll just add that this applies to almost everything, not just education.
