Kasey Brzycki is a 5th grade teacher from Missouri.
She knows firsthand that those closest to the student are best equipped to meet their
educational needs.
That's why she, and allies like Gretchen Logue, are fighting to empower parents and taxpayers.
They're a part of the latest fight to restore federalism in the face of government overreach in education.
I’m Lindsey Burke, an education policy analyst at the Heritage Foundation.
For decades, Republicans and Democrats have centralized control over education.
And now bureaucrats in Washington are using federal funds to coerce states to adopt national academic
standards and tests.
These national standards would dictate what students need to learn and when they should learn it.
There’s such a disconnect between
Washington, DC
and our schools at the local level and it’s very sad for me to think that any ounce of local
control that we have left. Because the states pretty much were in control with their standards
and we follow what they tell us we need to be doing,
but now that’s even getting to be farther and farther removed to where,
as a parent,
If I have a problem with something my child’s learning in social studies,
I can’t go to the school district,
I can’t even go to the state anymore because it’s out of our hands.
Do parents and taxpayers have a right
-- I think that’s the question -- do parents and taxpayers have a right
to
have a say in what their children are learning?
My feeling is,
if we’re paying for it,
you bet we do.
For example, I was teaching a lesson yesterday on fractions
and within that hour-long math period, I taught it three different ways to three different groups.
So being able to differentiate because the kids are different and yet we have these standards
that are trying to fit everyone into one mold;
it’s pretty much contradictory.
The Obama administration has always said that these standards would be "voluntary." But money
has always been on the line.
But leaders in Virginia, Texas and South Carolina have continued to oppose
futher federal overreach into education
PERRY: We know what works for our children
and the fact is that Washington’s
“Race to the Top” with their national standards and their national tests -- yet to be
worked out of course
-- we think would be devastating
to the young people in the State of Texas. We’re making progress
in every area. HALEY: We have to be careful when we take federal dollars. Every time you take
a dollar you put a hand behind your back. ROBINSON: You have to use the government in a smart way
to make sure that we don’t handcuff
teachers, principals, superintendents, teachers or parents into one-size-fits-all and that’s just
not the case.
If we had taken
the $249 million.
Would I go to the General Assembly and then ask for money
to meet the federal requirements?
No,
that is not the Virginia way.
Federalism --
allowing states to set education standards and determine how funds are spent
-- should be a guiding principle in education.
Only then will children’s needs best be served, and educational opportunity will flourish.
Congressman Rob Bishop taught high school for nearly 30 years.
Today as a representative of Utah’s first district and a member of the 10th Amendment Task Force
he champions federalism in education.
Education deals with people.
Give people and parents the ability
to do what they wish to do and move in the direction in which they want to do it.
By consolidating power here in Washington you flat out don’t do that.
Ever since the federal government in the mid-sixties became heavily involved in public
education we have been consistently fighting that battle
over standardization versus freedom.
Freedom should be our goal.
