Feds in the Classroom: How Big Government Corrupts, Cripples, and Compromises American Education

Neal P. McCluskey

Rowman & Littlefield, May 4, 2007 - Education - 209 pages

Thomas Jefferson warned that "the natural progress of things is for liberty to yield and government to gain ground." American elementary and secondary education shows how right he was. Two centuries ago the founders rejected federal participation in education and even rejected George Washington's plans on establishing a national university. It should be of little surprise, then, that the term "education" appears nowhere in the Constitution. Few early Americans would have considered providing education a proper function of local or state governments, much less some distant federal government. Federal control of the nation's schools would have simply been unthinkable. This view was the prevailing one well into the 20th century. In the 1980s, Ronald Reagan campaigned, in part, on a proposal to close the federal department of education. How things have changed in a few short decades. Today, every state requires children to attend school, and most dictate precisely what the children will learn. Parents, in contrast, are able to make very few choices about their children's education.

And what role does the federal government have now? It has drilled deep into almost every public classroom in America. Washington can now tell public schools whether their teachers are qualified, their reading instruction acceptable, and what they must do when their students do not achieve on par with federal demands. At the outset of his presidential administration, for example, George W. Bush pushed for the largest federal encroachment in education in American history. Through his No Child Left Behind Act, the federal government can dictate what will be taught, when, and by whom, to most of the 15,000 public school districts and 47 million public school children. Why the change? Is it a change? What's the cost to the taxpayers? What are the benefits to public school students? To public schools?

Today, with the almost-complete consolidation of education authority in the hands of policy makers in Washington, the last of our edu

Contents

• From the First Settlers to the Fifties Going from Freedom to the Feds: 5
• Rise of the Feds From the Great Society to Y2K: 37
• No Child Left Behind The Feds Triumphant: 77
• The Reckoning A Report Card for the Feds: 105
• Enforce the Constitution Make No Federal Policy: 129
• How the Judiciary Found the Federal Role: 145
• No GMen Need Apply: 167
• Out of the Jaws A Broad Roadmap for Reform: 191
• Index: 199

About the author

Neal P. McCluskey is a policy analyst with Cato Institute's Center for Educational Freedom. Prior to arriving at Cato, McCluskey served in the United States Army, taught high school English, and was a freelance reporter covering municipal government and education in suburban New Jersey. More recently, he was a policy analyst at the Center for Education Reform.

Bibliographic information

• Title: Feds in the Classroom: How Big Government Corrupts, Cripples, and Compromises American Education; G - Reference,Information and Interdisciplinary Subjects Series
• Author: Neal P. McCluskey
• Edition: illustrated
• Publisher: Rowman & Littlefield, 2007
• ISBN: 0742548589, 9780742548589
• Length: 209 pages
• Subjects: Education / Administration / General; Education / Educational Policy & Reform / Federal Legislation; Education / Educational Policy & Reform / General; Education / Educational Policy & Reform / School Safety; Education / General; Education / Philosophy, Theory & Social Aspects