Education should be primarily dealt with at the local level, with only essential oversight by the states such as requiring the essential history, math, sicence and English courses.
You are fundamentally correct. The idea of a Federal role, outside the District of Columbia or any other Federal Reservation, is absolutely asinine. That both parties have flirted with it, is one of the most damning examples of how far we have drifted both from the intention of the Founders & any realistic understanding of how human societies work for the better.
William Flax