Posted on 01/28/2012 6:08:27 PM PST by Starman417
Excellent article adapted from a speech given by Charles Murray regarding the need for the Department of Education:
THE CASE FOR the Department of Education could rest on one or more of three legs: its constitutional appropriateness, the existence of serious problems in education that could be solved only at the federal level, and/or its track record since it came into being. Let us consider these in order.(1) Is the Department of Education constitutional?
At the time the Constitution was written, education was not even considered a function of local government, let alone the federal government. But the shakiness of the Department of Education’s constitutionality goes beyond that. Article 1, Section 8 of the Constitution enumerates the things over which Congress has the power to legislate. Not only does the list not include education, there is no plausible rationale for squeezing education in under the commerce clause. I’m sure the Supreme Court found a rationale, but it cannot have been plausible.
On a more philosophical level, the framers of America’s limited government had a broad allegiance to what Catholics call the principle of subsidiarity. In the secular world, the principle of subsidiarity means that local government should do only those things that individuals cannot do for themselves, state government should do only those things that local governments cannot do, and the federal government should do only those things that the individual states cannot do. Education is something that individuals acting alone and cooperatively can do, let alone something local or state governments can do.
I should be explicit about my own animus in this regard. I don’t think the Department of Education is constitutionally legitimate, let alone appropriate. I would favor abolishing it even if, on a pragmatic level, it had improved American education. But I am in a small minority on that point, so let’s move on to the pragmatic questions.
(2) Are there serious problems in education that can be solved only at the federal level?
The first major federal spending on education was triggered by the launch of the first space satellite, Sputnik, in the fall of 1957, which created a perception that the United States had fallen behind the Soviet Union in science and technology. The legislation was specifically designed to encourage more students to go into math and science, and its motivation is indicated by its title: The National Defense Education Act of 1958. But what really ensnared the federal government in education in the 1960s had its origins elsewhere—in civil rights. The Supreme Court declared segregation of the schools unconstitutional in 1954, but—notwithstanding a few highly publicized episodes such as the integration of Central High School in Little Rock and James Meredith’s admission to the University of Mississippi—the pace of change in the next decade was glacial.
Was it necessary for the federal government to act? There is a strong argument for “yes,” especially in the case of K-12 education. Southern resistance to desegregation proved to be both stubborn and effective in the years following Brown v. Board of Education. Segregation of the schools had been declared unconstitutional, and constitutional rights were being violated on a massive scale. But the question at hand is whether we need a Department of Education now, and we have seen a typical evolution of policy. What could have been justified as a one-time, forceful effort to end violations of constitutional rights, lasting until the constitutional wrongs had been righted, was transmuted into a permanent government establishment. Subsequently, this establishment became more and more deeply involved in American education for purposes that have nothing to do with constitutional rights, but instead with a broader goal of improving education.
The reason this came about is also intimately related to the civil rights movement. Over the same years that school segregation became a national issue, the disparities between black and white educational attainment and test scores came to public attention. When the push for President Johnson’s Great Society programs began in the mid-1960s, it was inevitable that the federal government would attempt to reduce black-white disparities, and it did so in 1965 with the passage of two landmark bills—the Elementary and Secondary Education Act and the Higher Education Act. The Department of Education didn’t come into being until 1980, but large-scale involvement of the federal government in education dates from 1965.
[snip]
There is absolutely no need for the federal government to be involved in education anymore. This should be left up to the states. But ever since the unions became heavily involved in teaching we have seen ever increasing educational disasters. How could it not be a disaster when the education system is separated between unions who are only interested in their own needs and students/parents who want a better education for children.
And now we have fallen behind most of the world in almost all areas of education. The only successes? Privately run schools. One example is Illinois. 9 of the 10 best schools for graduation rates in that state are charter schools.
(Excerpt) Read more at floppingaces.net...
“I have had principals tell me to pass a kid because if I didn’t, he might feel bad and drop out, and that would look bad on the principal’s record.”
Social promotion in my opinion is one of the most pernicious and widespread evils in education today. When students fail, 9/10 of the time it is because they didn’t try to pass. And why should they, if someone is willing to send them on regardless? It makes holding students to any sort of standard, let alone a high one, difficult or impossible. And of course, it would be the teacher’s fault (SARC).
The University of North Carolina was established and chartered in 1789 at Chapel Hill under that Constitutional mandate, but practical reality apparently prevented any sort of broad establishment of public schools for elementary education until just prior to the Civil War.
The people of a given locality typically banded together, built a schoolhouse and hired a teacher or teachers themselves, just as they did in colonial times. The old, extended family schoolhouse from that era still stood in my childhood. Six fairly large family farms all in proximity, all with the typically large number of children. The school bore the family surname. It was used as a tobacco packhouse after public schools came in.
This was the norm in much if not all of rural NC, to my knowledge. Municipalities of any scale had their own schools. Historically church-run areas such as the Moravian settlements surrounding Salem and the Quaker settlements surrounding modern-day Greensboro had their church-run schools. There were institutes run by various groups as well, for instance the Masonic Institute, etcetera.
Hence the rise of the community college and their ‘developmental’ curriculum. A high school diploma is supposed to represent twelve-years of study. How can someone be granted a high school diploma without being able to read at a high-school level, write a paragraph, or do long division? I know why, but I don’t like to think about it. And remember, colleges are businesses too. Community colleges make money from these students and their families and their respective state governments. It doesn’t take too much tin foil to get me thinking there are other reasons for ‘social promotion’.
“This was the norm in much if not all of rural NC, to my knowledge.”
You are correct. The state did not truly establish a public school system as such until 1907, although local school boards retain considerable control, mostly in matters of buildings and physical plant, and personnel.
Tell her to be careful of AP Government and US History. They don’t teach about liberty, the Founding, or the impact the Bible had on American liberties. Other than that just be wary that it’s all taught with a solid Left-wing bias which I presume she already knows.
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