Posted on 07/12/2004 9:43:12 AM PDT by Akira
No matter how you look at it, federal involvement in education has been a failure. Nonetheless, with the No Child Left Behind Act (NCLB), the federal presence is getting bigger, not smaller. Yet the seeds of revolt have been sown: Parents, educators, and legislators are increasingly restive, and the NCLB is likely to be a critical issue in the upcoming presidential election. So it's time to decide: Should the feds stay or go?
In 1965, the year the Elementary and Secondary Education Act (ESEA) — of which NCLB is the most recent version — was passed, the federal government spent nearly $25 billion, adjusted for inflation, on education. By 2002 that total had more than quadrupled, reaching over $108 billion. Federal elementary and secondary education spending grew even faster, leaping from about $9 billion to over $53 billion — a 492-percent increase. Finally, just between 2000 and 2004, funding for the U.S. Department of Education increased almost 65 percent, from $38.4 billion to $63.3 billion.
Unfortunately, almost no profit has been generated by the huge federal investment in education. The Department of Education, in No Child Left Behind: A Guide for Policymakers, acknowledges this: "Since 1965, the United States has nearly tripled the amount spent on every public school student in the nation, even adjusted for inflation. Yet, over the same period of time, test scores nationwide have stubbornly remained flat...." Harvard University researcher Paul Peterson confirmed this in Our Schools and Our Future...Are we still at risk?, in which he analyzed data from Scholastic Aptitude Tests, National Assessment of Educational Progress exams, and several international comparisons, and found that "no matter what instrument is used, the results are roughly the same: America's schools are stagnating...."
Examining just a small selection of federal education initiatives shows why federal policy has been so ineffective: From the largest programs to the smallest, the federal government backs a lot of losers.
Consider Title I of the ESEA, the centerpiece of the federal K-12 effort and its biggest source of funding. It accounts for over $12.3 billion in 2004 alone, and has divvied up billions of dollars among districts with high concentrations of low-income kids every year since 1966. It has also never proven its value, as Marvin Kosters and Brent Mast explain in Closing the Education Achievement Gap: Is Title I Working?: "After more than thirty-five years of experience and numerous careful efforts to evaluate its performance, the evidence has failed to demonstrate that Title I programs have been systematically and significantly contributing to reducing disparities in achievement by improving the performance of its beneficiaries."
Like Title I, smaller and newer programs also continue to receive federal dollars despite either a history of failure or a high likelihood of failure. For instance, the 21st Century Community Learning Centers program, which funds after-school enrichment efforts around the country, started in 1995 with a small budget of $847,000. By 2004, its budget had ballooned to nearly $1 billion, despite the fact that, according to a 2003 Department of Education evaluation, the program "had limited influence on academic performance, no influence on feelings of safety or the number of 'latchkey' children and some negative influences on behavior."
Or how about this: A partnership between the Long Beach Unified School District, the California State University at Long Beach, and an arts agency called Dramatic Results runs a project that the Department of Education reports "will provide systematic, illustrated information showing how to use basketry to provide quality arts instruction and how to integrate basketry into the academic curricula to strengthen instruction in math." This program, which literally uses basket weaving to help teach math, has received nearly a quarter of a million dollars from the federal government.
Over 200 years ago, the nation's Founders understood that federal intervention into state, local, and family concerns like education would be futile. They knew that the federal government would be too distant and unwieldy to solve problems in the nation's diverse cities, towns, and hamlets. It's a major reason why the Tenth Amendment to the Constitution declares that "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," and why the Constitution makes no mention of education at all.
We now know that the Founders were right; the failed federal foray into education over the last nearly 40 years has proven it. And so the time has come for the federal government to do as the Constitution demands, and get out of America's schools.
This one was for you...
That's why Republicans want us to keep voting for them. To limit government.
Aren't they doing a great job?
Exactly. It's totally depressing when we get this repeatedly from a GOP administration.
You nailed it. Very disappointing from the Pubbies.
The Koolaid drinkers will have none of it; blindly voting "R" every time is the only way to go, apparently. Doesn't matter what Bush & Co. are doing to our liberties, our assets or our Constitution.
I demand better performance before I vote to reelect.
Agreed. I'm relatively new to FR (about a year now), but I quickly learned that you cannot really criticize this administration here, not even just for open and honest debate, especially in an election year. You and I might not even agree on where he deserves the most criticism (I married Dagny Taggart, and she and I sometimes butt heads), but we both get taken to task for opening our mouths in these parts.
So that's where she went. Any chance I can get my pajamas back?
There will NEVER be true education reform until the authority and responsibility are placed in the hands of the stake-holders--the parents who send their children to school. This is the reason private schools, for the most part, succeed and public schools, for the most part, are failing. It's not how much money you spend necessarily, it's the commitment level of those affected.
And if she's not doing anything with that bracelet . . . . .
It seems cyclical - there are times where it's okay to criticize the administration and times where it is not.
Just ignore the names/personal attacks tossed your way - they come from people who can't come up with a good response and so go back to the playground "oh yeah, well your just a...." mentality.
Yikes, just saw your picture. I'll never look at my wife the same again.
Hank, you should keep a look out for John Galt......
I have no problems ignoring personal attacks, but it is the hypocrisy that sometimes gets to me. Also the prevelant assumption that all conservatives are alike and that groupthink rules.
While I am MUCH unhappy with the current performance of Republicans, I do not wish to do anything that will increase the chances that Dims will gain more power. Bush WILL win Alabama (where I live.) No question. I am seriously considering voting third (fourth, fifth?) party. Libertarian, Constitution, Taxpayers, etc.
The hard-core Marxists, Communists, Nazis (National Socialists) etc. have no problem working with the other Dimocrats (all 3 of them!) I think that the Constitutionalists, Taxpayers Parties, Libertarians should caucus with the GOP while fighting for their beliefs within the party.
Try to see it through her eyes. The view has improved.
Shryke, I am not necessarily against all of the provisions of NCLB, given that the prospect of killing the NEA no longer seems likely in the foreseeable future. I am for anything that increases the accountability of schools and teachers.
I might even be happier with the states' supposed increase in being able to choose how to spend all of this money, were I not convinced that they'd continue to screw it up anyway. Fed-run education vs. state-run education? Is there a winner there?
My frustration lies mostly with my agreement with a central theme in this article - the dismal record of the Fed's involvement with education. I would rather see drastic changes to what I believe is a failed experiment rather than much more minor (yet no less expensive) tinkering.
Do you feel this article is inaccurate, or simply that it did not try to comment on all aspects of NCLB?
I also live in a red state (TX) and am content for now to fight within the GOP, of which I am still a member. GWB has my vote this year, but I do not miss many opportunities to let them know how I feel (given the flood of pathetically-worded surveys I get in the mail).
Disclaimer: Opinions posted on Free Republic are those of the individual posters and do not necessarily represent the opinion of Free Republic or its management. All materials posted herein are protected by copyright law and the exemption for fair use of copyrighted works.