You highlight a number of constitutionally unauthorized Federal programs. Education is inherently local, as I pointed out. Layering bureaucracy above local education is counter-productive. The Federal Government has important, clearly defined functions. Imposing duties on local school systems is not among those functions.
Reagan was frustrated by having to work with Democrats in Congress, so he never got rid of the Department. That does not make it a legitimate Federal enterprise. As for Bush II, and his embrace of the idiotic "No child left behind," silliness--silliness because no two children have the same aptitudes, unless they are identical twins;--that is pure demagoguery, providing parents of slow learners with false hopes. Far better to let local schools take their own initiatives, in the local classroom, to help problems students find what they can do best, without pretending that everyone is potentially the same. And certainly not stultifying their ability to deal with problems by imposing Federal check lists of how to proceed in managing their own affairs.
The whole notion of a Federal role in local civilian education is totally antagonistic to the nature of American Federalism--and arrogant in the extreme.
Thank you for your reply. I agree with everything you said, but we have an issue in this country with a lack of political capital regarding the powers of the federal government. A large group of our population, wrong in principle they might be, feel that there ought to be oversight in local governance. They will point to a few exceptional cases of local abuses to make their case, and they will also fund massive legal fights over any attempt to abolish a cabinet level agency. It is our responsibility to make conclusive, clear arguments in favor of limited government. It is their responsibility to respond in good faith with their own arguments for an expanded role in government. We are right, they are wrong, but it's a democratic process that has unfortunately been inundated with sound bites and emotions. I'd love to see a bipartisan congress working to limit the role of Big Gov in our lives, but we're only now emerging from 8 years of darkness and I don't know when we'll get to that point.