THE PROGRESSIVE CONSERVATIVE, USA
An Online Journal of Political Commentary & Analysis
Volume IX, Issue # 155, August 19, 2007
Dr. Almon Leroy Way, Jr., Editor
Government Committed to & Acting in Accord with Conservative Principles
Ensures a Nation's Strength, Progress, & Prosperity
CONGRESS IS DESTROYING AMERICA'S SCHOOLS
By Alan Caruba
"NO CHILD LEFT BEHIND" LEGISLATION & WHAT IT MEANS: CENTRALIZED CONTROL & DIRECTION OF AMERICA'S
PUBLIC SCHOOLS BY THE U.S. NATIONAL GOVERNMENT -- PURSUIT OF A NATIONAL POLICY THAT IS DESTROYING THE
PUBLIC SCHOOLS & DOING GREAT DAMAGE TO THE MINDS OF AMERICAN CHILDREN & YOUTH -- GIVING GROSSLY
INADEQUATE ATTENTION TO TEACHING MATHEMATICS, HISTORY, GEOGRAPHY & OTHER ESSENTIAL SUBJECTS, WHILE
INDOCTRINATING PUBLIC SCHOOL STUDENTS TO ACCEPT A WHOLE RANGE OF "POLITICALLY CORRECT,"
LEFTIST-APPROVED IDEAS, VALUES, & BELIEFS REGARDING GENDER ISSUES, SEXUAL MORES, MORALITY, DIVERSITY,
MULTICULTURALISM, ENVIRONMENTALISM, PACIFISM, INTERNATIONALISM, GLOBALISM, & WORLD GOVERNMENT
FULL STORY:
If you want to witness the most blatantly unconstitutional and un-American laws at work, then just take a walk through
your local public schools. They are currently under the control of the U.S. central government.
Why any town or city bothers to hold an election for members of the local board of education is a mystery to me. Between
the U.S. Department of Education and a labor union, the National Education Association — masquerading as just a group
of concerned teachers — local school boards have no real power to reverse the subjugation and destruction of the
nation’s education system.
Since the United States Constitution does not even mention education as a function of the national government, it is a
continuing mystery why the national government has a department devoted to education. Well, it’s less of a mystery if
you consider that its purpose is to indoctrinate the children passing through the public schools to accept a whole range
of values and ideas that lots of Americans think are wrong.
From the Head Start program to the International Baccalaureate, the whole purpose of “education” today is to create new
generations of Americans who think that the United Nations should govern the entire planet and who uncritically accept
politically correct beliefs about gender issues, diversity, multiculturalism, and environmentalism. To insure this occurs,
Congress and some states are ready to sign off on programs that would evaluate the mental stability of every child from
pre-school on through graduation. That’s Big Brother!
Is Johnny or Daphne not “thinking correctly” about these issues? Do they have dangerous ideas of constitutionalism,
representative democracy, national independence and sovereignty, state autonomy, local self-government, privacy, or
— horrors — a religious belief that they picked up at home? That is what “education” means today in America. It’s the
reason some school districts still try to ban the singing of Christmas carols every December. It’s the reason that “hate
speech” codes are instituted to insure that only the most Leftist-approved notions are thought and spoken. Under the
U.S. Constitution, even socalled hate speech is protected.
There is a reason why public confidence in the Presidency and Congress is at an all-time low. It is the reason why
thousands of Americans were forced to call, write, fax and email their elected representatives to insure that the socalled
immigration “reform” bill was defeated, and I suggest they must do the same to put an end to the noxious “No Child Left
Behind” legislation.
Congress is discussing the reauthorization of NCLB. As U.S. Representative Scott Garrett (Republican - New Jersey)
points out, “It centralized accountability in Washington with the bureaucrats and appointees at the U.S. Department of
Education, completely bypassing the legislatures in fifty state capitals, countless township school boards and local
officials, and — most importantly — administrators, educators, and parents all across the nation.”
Rep. Garrett’s bill, the LEARN Act (Local Education Authority Returns Now) would empower local and state
governments to create and enforce programs of public education. What a notion! What an astonishing idea! Oh, wait a
minute. Up to NCLB, that’s where the power over education was always exercised or assumed to be exercised. Common
sense tells you that education must be the province of those closest to those intended to benefit most, the children in
local schools.
What NCLB does is create a national standard that seeks the lowest common denominator for states to qualify for federal
education funding. Perhaps that’s why, in some form or other, says Garrett, “all fifty states have taken some form of action,
whether it is legislative or legal, against No Child Left Behind.”
Why, then, is Congress considering extending it? Perhaps, it has something to do with the arrogance of the members of
Congress who, until assailed for their determination to force a hated immigration bill on Americans, still haven’t concluded
that our form of government takes its power from the will of the people and elected representatives are expected to act
accordingly. They do not know better than us. There’s a reason they are called “representatives.”
No Child Left Behind is legislation conjured up by U.S. Senator Teddy Kennedy and supported by President George W.
Bush. Since its enactment in 2001, the budget of the Department of Education ballooned to $23.5 billion. If NCLB is
reauthorized, the budget in 2008 would grow to $24.4 billion, a 41% increase in just seven years!
Currently, the teaching of mathematics, history, geography, and other essential areas of learning are pathetically inadequate,
deeply distorted, or totally ignored. The enthusiasm and creativity that new teachers bring to the classroom is crushed. The
growth of all manner of administrative staff to cope with federal paperwork expands. And homework increases to make up for
the inability to teach the fundamentals during the school day, thus shifting the burden to parents.
Little wonder that some parents elect to home school their children or, if they can afford it, send them to private schools that,
despite operating on smaller budgets and lower salaries, still manage to provide a superior quality of education.
Remember, the central government has no constitutional authority over education policy! That policy should be set, at the
local level by the parents and grandparents of children in whom we have invested our hopes for the future of America.
It’s time to man the barricades and to fire up the fax machines and email. Tell your Senators and your Representative to vote
against No Child Left Behind before it does any further damage to a new generation of Americans.
LINKS TO RELATED TOPICS:
Education & America's Schools
A Practical Guide to Homeschooling
American Government -- Constitutional System
The Constitution of the United States of America
The American Political System -- Politics &
Government in the U.S.A.: Political Science Course
The American Constitutional System -- Origins:
English Antecedents
The American Constitutional System -- Origins:
Colonial & Early American Antecedents
The American Constitutional System -- Origins:
The Federal Constitutional Convention of 1787
The American Constitutional System -- Origins:
The U.S. Constitution -- Ratification & Adoption
The American Constitutional System -- Origins:
The U.S. Constitution -- The Scheme of National Government
The American Constitutional System -- Principal Characteristics:
Constitutionalism, Republicanism, Separation of Powers,
Checks & Balances, Legislative Bicameralism,
& Balanced Government
The American Constitutional System -- Principal Characteristics:
Federalism -- Fedural Union of States
The U.S. Constitution -- Underlying Political Theory:
The Federalist -- Selected Essays
Alan Caruba is a veteran business and science writer, a Public Relations Counselor, and Founder of the National Anxiety Center, a
clearinghouse for information about media-driven scare campaigns. Caruba writes a weekly commentary, "Warning Signs," posted
on the Internet website of the National Anxiety Center, which is located at
www.anxietycenter.com.
Caruba’s new book, Right Answers: Separating Fact from Fantasy, has been published by Merril Press.
© Alan Caruba 2007
Published with Permission of Alan Caruba
ACaruba@AOL.Com
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THE PROGRESSIVE CONSERVATIVE, USA
An Online Journal of Political Commentary & Analysis
Dr. Almon Leroy Way, Jr., Editor
Conservative & Free-Market Analysis of Government, Politics & Public Policy, Covering Political, Legal, Constitutional, Economic,
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Conservative Government Ensures a Nation's Strength, Progress, & Prosperity