Kill NCLB; Support the 10th AmendmentNo Child Left Behind: Here’s a narrow, specific example of how conservatives need to figure out what they stand for. I think it’s clear that there’s little constitutional mandate for federal management of education, yet our “conservative” President and his administration have developed the most comprehensive education program and associated federal bureaucracy probably since head-start. Is it clear that education has no federal mandate? I believe it is. There is no mention of public education in the powers enumerated for the federal government. There are clear mandates for the regulation of commerce, coinage, national defense, and various other functions but no specific language on education. Some will argue that “we the people” are collectively authorized to do whatever we want. Others may cite the mandate to provide for the “general welfare” as justification. I understand those arguments, and they have some debatable merit among liberals, but it seems antithetical for conservatives to cite these justifications. I’d prefer to temporarily concede the liberal support for these points, and focus on the incongruity of conservatives adopting these arguments. The 10th amendment seems to clearly preclude education as a federal function. “The powers not delegated to the United States by the Constitution, nor prohibited by it to the States, are reserved to the States respectively, or to the people.” Since education is not delegated to the United States, it seems to be reserved to the States or the people. I can’t quite imagine how this can be argued, but I’m sure some readers are eager to expand my imagination. So, if for the sake of argument we can assume that education has no constitutional mandate, conservatives ought to reject NCLB. Reauthorization of NCLB will face this new Congress where Democrats may be eager to revamp, overhaul, gut, or kill it for various reasons ranging from altruism to spite against the President. But the likely response from Republicans? Defense on partisan grounds? Reauthorization on the grounds that NCLB is a needed counterbalance to the liberal teachers’ unions? Support based on the polling data among soccer moms? NCLB should not be supported by conservatives. Conservatives who are concerned about this issue need to press their state for standards and testing. They should press their local school boards for accountability, but they shouldn’t look to the federal government to subvert state control. The Party that professes that “the best government is that which governs least” should abandon its support for NCLB. – I have little or no hope of this happening. Michael Previous: Political, Economic, and Personal Philosophical Convergence? -- Next: Blustery… |
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