Leave Education To Our States

"Opinion"

07/05/2008

Paul Munnis


It’s hard to craft an education policy that works for all of the United States. That is why it’s been left to the States to deal with. By leaving educational policy to the States, the nature of the educational experience is fitted to local needs. Some States are highly rural and others are highly urban. The needs of those students is much different, the employment markets that those schools are educating their students for is quite different, and the working conditions for teachers and students is quite different and the income levels of the local schools is also a big variable.

Yet students growing up in a rural area may well find themselves taking employment in an urban area before their lifetime is over and so students need to be educated enough to join a mobile labor force.

In theory it should be possible to come up with a “one-size-fits-all curricula” for K-12. Americans should be able to agree on a course of study wherein we can say: “This is what an Educated American needs to know to be successful.” It sounds good until subjects like art, physical education, and black history come up. Then the regional differences and attitudes shine through. When you add religion to the discussion it really comes apart. Soon it becomes apparent that it is even difficult to standardize a text book with one group clamoring to set Darwin aside when teaching “Creationism” in Biology courses.

What about “No Child Left Behind?” In some ways it provides Americans with a benchmark for how their child’s school compares to others in the community, State, and nation. That is a good thing. In other respects NCLB has a lot of criticism levied against it that seems valid. NCLB’s major flaw I think is that Federal funding is tied to it and that cash contribution makes for a less than objective acceptance of the legislation in cash strapped communities across the nation. Some would argue that the worse a school is in terms of its performance then the more that it needs financial help.

As we move into the new school year with gas at $4 per gallon we can see schools struggling for transportation solutions. What will work in an urban area versus a rural area is quite different from what will work in the suburbs. The needs for student transportation solutions in Alaska are very different from the needs of the children in California. Where the money will come from to manage school transportation cost increases is also a major concern that all schools will have but that regional solutions must be found for.

I remember being in the San Francisco area during the gasoline rationing of the mid-seventies when that was imposed with a lot of other restrictions on gasoline use and in response to the “Six Days War” and the support by the U.S. of Israel in that war. Saudi Arabia had shut off oil imports to America and Nixon responded with national speed limits, gas rationing, and other fuel saving requirements. One of them was the suspension of daylight savings time.

In San Francisco, in the fall months, the early morning fog is thick and the suspension of daylight savings time meant that kids were going to school in the dark and foggy period when drivers were only half awake themselves. The newspapers were full of stories about children being run over by cars. That nation wide solution to a gas crisis was a total failure in that region.

We are at that point once again. We do not have the federal imposition of national regulations imposed on us. We are not dealing with rationing or autocratic national rules. We are leaving it to the regions to decide how to manage the gas problem and affordability is going to be a big factor in the outcome and decision making.

By leaving it to the States, that means the matter will be taken up by local school boards. They will have plenty of citizen input on the subject. That is democracy at work. The solutions will not be a “one size fits all” solution and in theory should be an accepted part of the communities adopting the changes.

As for setting educational criteria I think that it is best for the Federal Government to withdraw from the situation as much as possible and leave it to the States to manage. I do think that if the federal government wants to help schools it can issue a flat per capita federal financial assistance program to the Sates and I think that the national bureau of standards can set a minimum standard curricula standard for some subjects and a school measurement standard and these would be value-added efforts by the federal government.