In a recent public address, Senator Lamar Alexander (R-TN)
announced that an onslaught of federal mandates has transformed the Department
of Education into a de facto ‘National School Board.’ As the good senator noted, we have a major
disagreement in this country about who should be in control of education:
Democrats want a national school board, and Republicans want local
control. Unfortunately, right now the
Leftists are succeeding.
Earlier this month the Senate Health, Education, Labor, and
Pensions Committee (HELP?) approved the Strengthening
America’s Schools’ Act, (S1094).
Passed along party lines, the bill strengthens federal enforcement of
Common Core and demands some 150 new reporting requirements from the
states. Furthermore, SASA sets
additional dictates on how states may spend education dollars, and preempts the
authority of states to set certain licensing and certification criteria. In essence, SASA is a federal power grab.
While Tom Harkin’s SASA bill dramatically moves us closer to
a national school board, local control over education has been on the decline
for several decades. President Jimmy
Carter initiated the federal takeover by creating the Department of Education
in 1979, and Bush’s No Child Left Behind
Act legitimized further curriculum interference. While denigrating NCLB out of one side of his
mouth, President Obama has enthusiastically built upon the NCLB foundation to
seize federal control of education.
Defenders of federal control insist that nationalized
curriculum will improve academic standards and create uniformity. However, the curriculum imposed by the federal
Common Core program demonstrates that one-size-fits-all standards are highly
suspect. Numerous educators have pointed
out that much of the CC math components are based on a ‘new math’ education fad
that abandons math ‘facts’ in favor of enigmatic ‘critical thinking’
exercises. (“Critical thinking” may in fact be the most misunderstood, misused,
and abused term in modern pedagogy, but that’s another column altogether.)
Likewise, the Common Core language arts curriculum gradually
de-emphasizes literature in favor of “informational texts.” Many CC whistle-blowers have revealed that
these “informational texts” often consist of blatant political propaganda
(Leftist, of course.) Literature and Philosophy professors across
the nation have decried the shift as the implementation of radical leftist
Deconstructionist philosophy that denies the existence of ‘truth.’
The latter problem may be difficult to grasp, but it is
important to understand that these national standards are not ‘values neutral’
but emphatically present a leftist-worldview, and that worldview has no room
for either absolute truths or religious belief.
Only last week President Obama suggested that allowing children to
attend religious schools was ‘divisive.’
His defenders claim that his comments only applied to Ireland, but many
of the President’s domestic policies have also conveyed a certain anti-religion
bias. (e.g., healthcare rules, military
chaplains, etc.)
Those who have opted out of public school also have cause
for concern. Part and parcel of the
leftist “utopian” dream is a uniform, collective education. Not only do they oppose any form of parental
choice in education, but believe public schools should strive to separate
children from the “child abuse” of religious training. (Richard Hawkins, etc.) These groups do not believe parents should be
able to opt out of federally mandated curriculum in any way. With nationalized standards in place, they
plan to use various school accreditation services and college admissions to
impose Common Core particulars and worldview on all American students.
Here in Texas we have pushed back against federal control to
some extent. After learning about the
content of CSCOPE (which was at least partially created by architects of Common
Core,) parents were able to work through elected members of their local school
boards, the State Board of Education, and the State Legislature to stop implementation. The Governor has also signed a measure
requiring school superintendents to comply with information requests from
elected trustees, thus further strengthening local voter control over
education.
Unfortunately, if Senator Harkin’s so-called Strengthening America’s Schools Act
passes, parents and local voters will have far less control over what is
taught, who is hired, and where their own children attend school. Senator Lamar Alexander has outlined an alternate
proposal that respects the Constitution by keeping control at the state level,
but at this writing, the 1,150 page Harkin bill is moving forward. Americans should reject this blatant
power-grab.
