This very dangerous trend in American politics and public policy is an Orwellian move by the Republicans who talk about limited government but actually support more command and control by federally run bureaucratic programs. This is especially true in the arena of education, demonstrated by programs such as No Child Left Behind and now the move to federalize the curriculum process in other areas of learning.
Politics aside, the most disconcerting aspect of this new $3.75 billion proposal is its policy implications. It continues an unconstitutional trend that started in 1958 with our so-called first crisis in education — the supposed "fact" that Americans were behind the Soviets. The manufactured crisis was "solved" by the government with the National Defense Education Act. This was the first attempt by the federal government — in violation of the Constitution, which clearly does not list education as an enumerated power — to meddle in state and local education policy.
The next manufactured crisis "solved" by the federal government came in 1965 with the Elementary and Secondary Education Act, which was passed to supposedly help struggling schools and students. These programs were followed by others, including No Child Left Behind.
Each new program was created to "solve" the educational crisis of the day that faced America. In fact, what each one has done is to ever expand the federal education bureaucracy and its power. It has solved no real problems but has actually created quite a few, including breeding a citizenry that doesn't understand its liberties and the limits placed on government by the Constitution.
What Americans need is not a new federal education program but the absence of all federal education programs. The American people need to remember the 10th Amendment, which states 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." If Americans are to take our Constitution and the education of our children seriously, we need to wake up, reclaim our power, and 'Just Say No' to federal control of education.
Michael D. Ostrolenk is education policy director at the conservative Eagle Forum.
