In light of the recent “Dear Colleague” letter sent jointly to all elementary and secondary schools by the Departments of Justice and Education “to insure inclusive, supportive, safe and nondiscriminatory communities for all,” including transgender students, what could be more timely than a discussion of the federal government’s role in education?
It’s interesting to note that the term education does not appear anywhere in the Constitution. Education in not included in the powers granted to Congress under Article 1, Section 8, nor to the president under Article 11. This does not mean the founders were uninterested in education, in fact, quite the opposite. Most studied a classical curriculum including philosophy and the natural sciences, and some could read and write many languages.
So although there was no accommodation for education in the Constitution and it was never intended to be a function of the national government, the federal government through the Land Ordinance of 1785 did provide land for public schools: 1/36th of the land in every township of the Northwest Territory was set aside for the encouragement of education. Article 111 of the Northwest Ordinance stated, “Religion, morality, and knowledge being necessary to good government and the happiness of mankind, schools and the means of education shall forever be encouraged.” That said, the actual development of the public schools was the responsibility of the local township or the particular state.
The federal Department of Education came into being under President Jimmy Carter in 1979. Education mandated from on high in Washington became more and more about civil rights and social justice and less about reading, writing and critical thinking, and despite the billions poured into education by the federal government, outcomes have declined.
Federal control over K-12 education has increased exponentially over several decades to the point states and localities have little say in what goes on in their own classrooms. The money for education comes from taxpayers in every state, yet this money is returned back to the states with strings.
These things snowball as when, for example, the feds said to states who hated the mandates of No Child Left Behind and Race to the Top, “We’ll let you out of those mandates if you adopt this newer better education scheme” called Common Core Standards, which most teachers, parents and students now hate just as much. The standardized testing and data collection of private student and family information by the government is disturbing. And talk about snowballing federal money with strings, The Department of Agriculture, in this case, is how we got Washington dictating to schools what they must serve for lunch, and banning lunches from home because, heaven forbid, they can’t control what parents might send in Johnny’s brown bag. Many schools now provide breakfast, lunch and dinner to qualifying students. There was a reason the framers left education out of the powers granted to the federal government. Government is best that is closest to the people.
As citizens of a free republic it is our duty to preserve it.
Mikie Kerr lives in Waikoloa and writes Constitution Corner monthly for West Hawaii Today
