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[Scott]

Originally posted by Steve:

Education can mean a lot of things to different people.  For the sake of this post / topic, what I am really referring to is Federal involvement in the public primary education system  (Through the 12th grade).

"Education" is one of those issues that NOBODY could be "against"..  Who doesn't think "education" is good?  Politically, it would be suicidal to say you're "against education".   

Unfortunately, in our sound-bite  (or sound-BYTE as it's becoming) based world, it's increasingly difficult to have a rational discussion about there even being two sides to this issue, for fear that someone will pull something out of context, and make it look like you're "against education", or want to blindly "cut education". 

All it takes is some reporter to say "What price do we put on the value of our Children's education" and it seems that the answer is that it's never enough, and that nobody has the political guts to ask the hard questions about where the money is going, and whether it's doing "my money's worth" of work for us.

Over the last 30 to 40 years or so, public schools have become increasingly regulated, monitored by the Federal government, and made to meet Federal regulations and administer Federal standardized testing.  With all this red tape has come boxes and boxes of paperwork for school teachers and administrators to fill out, to prove that they're in compliance with all the regulations.  Of course, all of that comes at a cost...  In the 2008 Fiscal year, the Department of Education "gave" the states over $59 BILLION dollars in "discretionary" funds for complying with the Federal rules  [http://www.ed.gov/about/overview/budget/budget09/summary/edlite-section1.html]

But, before you say "thanks" to the feds for that money, remember that it was OUR money in the first place - We were taxed out of it to begin with...  So,  the proper way to look at this money is that it was TAKEN from us locally, then our local schools were basically made to comply with Federal rules to get SOME of the money back (I couldn't find any reference to a dollar figure regarding the overhead within the education department, but you can be sure their Federal employees dont work for free, and there is a SUBSTANTIAL overhead within the "machine" which is the Department of Education.

Ironically, in these same 30 to 40 years of history, our education system has been losing ground when compared to systems in other countries.  That is not to say that we aren't teaching our kids, or that the majority of teachers and administrators are wonderful educators personally, but the fact is that our system has been grown to be driven by Federal money as the primary incentive, rather than the REAL education of the Children.  This has exibited itself in a number of ways, such as "teaching to the test", meaning that the educators have figured out what questions will be on those standardized tests, or at least the TYPE of questions, and so instead of teaching a balanced curriculum, we only teach what we need to get an acceptable score on a specific test, just to get the Federal approval and money.

Most recently, our Federal over-involvement has come in the way of the "No child left behind" act...  How wonderful..  We'll all be smart now..  EVERYONE can be equal, because "we're not leaving anyone behind" anymore...  Who could be against that, and whoever said we should leave someone behind before??

Nobody who wants to be politically relevant could handle a sound bite coming out about them being "FOR leaving children behind", but if you look behind the doublespeak, what you'll find is a program that encourages our educators to basically stop teaching any student that already exceeds certain minimum standards, because they MUST focus on those kids who are behind, or risk losing Federal funding.  This leaves the kids that are ahead of grade level with nothing challenging to do, because the schools have little or no incentive to push those kids to the next level.   We'll all be equal...  because NOBODY will be allowed to reach their potential.  We'll ALL be lowest-common-denominators.

I do not know what the answer to this problem is.  Some would argue that ALL education should be paid for by the family who made the decision to raise the child, and not make any education a tax burdon / government issue at all.  I certainly knew my fair share of "20 somethings" making a great living as geeks in the dot com boom who looked at their tax bills and said "Why should *I* have to pay for educating someone else's kids?",  but I think that we have rightly decided as a society that education is important enough to our future as a nation that we should make it a shared expense to give all children SOME level of education.  Where I differ with current US policy, is that I dont feel that it is ANY business of the FEDERAL government.

There is NOTHiNG that the Federal government can do with our tax money that will make it more effectively teach our children after they return only a portion of it back to the local school systems.  I believe although there is no PERFECT system, that there could be a lot better education done with only local oversight, by people who understand the local population and their needs, and could more quickly react to those needs without a bunch of red tape going to Washington begging to get some of our tax money back.

Some would argue that we need federal standards in testing and educational programs so that a high-school diploma from Arkansas will mean the same education level as one from Vermont, and that a student who moves in the 9th grade from one jurisdiction to another can expect to do reasonably similar academically in the new system's version of "9th grade".  I would say that even without Federal oversight, there would be nothing stopping State or local education departments from communicating directly with each other to create a common definition of success for each grade level.  I would also argue that even WITH the Federal system, you're KIDDING YOURSELF if you believe that all diplomas are created equal around our country.  Just as a college diploma from an Ivy League College demands a lot more respect than one from a community college, I'm sure we can all identify good and bad schools and systems in our local area.  Speaking personally of my local area in Maryland, I know I would rather have a diploma from Montgomery or Howard counties than one from Baltimore city or PG county.  Somehow our current federal system has failed to make those two pieces of paper "equal" in value.  Remember also, that even in a good system or school, 50% of the students graduate in the BOTTOM half of their class!  :-)

Another issue, which is HUGE in this whole debate, and which I have ignored up to now is that PARENTS need to be held accountable.  A trend, which has tracked with the rising taxes and failing education, is the fact that increasingly, we have turned our families either into 2 income households or single parent families, and rather than having a parent stay home and raise the children, many children today go to daycare or sit and watch TV when mom and dad are both at work.  This is a self-perpetuating problem; Taxes are higher, so we need more money, so we work longer hours, so the kids dont get educated at home anymore.  What we NEED to do as a society, is to review our value structure, and decide that even though maybe we wont be able to go out to dinner and a movie as much as we used to, for a couple years, that one parent or the other needs to stay home and raise the children until they go to school.  There is NOTHING like a parent spending the time with the child in the first 5 years or so, and teaching them personally, one on one  No school will EVER be able to provide that.  We can not afford to just send them to the babysitters and then complain in the second grade that "my child can't read, so you must be a horrible teacher".  YOU decided to have a baby, so step up to the responsibility and make sure that child will be able to function as a valuable member of society in the future!


As I said, I dont have the answer..  That's what this forum is for - To DISCUSS many viewpoints and ideas.  A few things I would like to recommend however, would be ANYTHING that works toward dismantling the Department of Education as we know it.  I would also suggest that allowing bad schools to go 'out of business' would be a step in the right direction.  This would occur by allowing parents to choose schools, most likely by a voucher program or other personal choice.  Next would be discipline in the schools. Since we can't leave "any child behind", we dont fail any students... EVER...  at least without the parent ASKING for the child to be held back, and we can't throw them out of public school for discipline problems because everyone "deserves" an education.  Pushing a student out of the system just because they're 18 didn't do them any favors when they try to get a job and realize they dont know how to make change for a dollar or how to read a job application.  If you're going to set standards, STICK TO THEM, and dont create incentives for getting around them, like the no child left behind act.  Also, what about the right to an education that the other children are being denied because one or two disruptive students can not be removed from the classroom?


And..  where exactly does it say in the constitution that the Federal government is in charge of the primary education of every child??  We all agree that education is important, but plenty of things are important, and most of them require PERSONAL responsibility, not government ownership of the problem.  This is no exception!

-Steve