Thomas Jefferson, author of the Declaration of Independence and third President of the United States was a strong proponent of making sure America became an educated country. Since democracy is advanced civics, it was important that the citizens of the new nation were enlightened individuals. Yet any reference to the importance or method of education is conspicuously absent from the Constitution. The Tenth Amendment specifically states that, anything not the domain of the federal government falls under the jurisdiction of the individual states. Thus we have 50(51 including DC) state departments of education each with statewide curriculum requirements, teacher certification standards and high school graduation requirements. This also means that locally elected school boards play a critical role as to what goes on in America’s public schools.
At the federal level, the increasing role of government in education goes back to the 1950s. The National Defense Education Act was a knee jerk reaction to the Soviet launch of Sputnik, the first satellite in space. America realized that it was far behind in the “Space Race” and therefore appropriated funds to encourage college students to pursue careers in science and math.
President Lyndon Johnson was responsible for passing the Elementary and Secondary Education Act (ESEA). President Jimmy Carter created the Department of Education and the cabinet level position of Secretary of Education that went with it. President George W. Bush was responsible for the broad reaching and controversial No Child Left Behind Act (NCLB) and President Obama enacted the Race to the Top Program.
While there has been public resentment for these intrusions into education, it has not stopped interest groups from focusing on single issues when it comes to education in this country. These issues have included:
School Prayer
Reciting the Pledge of Allegiance in schools
Sex Education
Charter Schools
Inoculations
Textbook selections
More recently the issues have included teacher tenure, performance evaluations, and collective bargaining issues.
In short, education has become politicized with the adults doing battle without really addressing the needs of America’s children. It is about four months until a very important Presidential election. It will remain to be seen whether education becomes a campaign issue. At the local level it already has, since a decline in property values has led to a decline in tax revenues used to fund public schools. As educators
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