"I’m working hard to fix up your classrooms and get you the books, equipment and computers you need to learn." —President Barack Obama, address to schoolchildren, September 8, 2009
President Obama's speech today and the revised Department of Education "engagement resources" do not change the federal government's ever-increasing control of education, to the detriment of local control by the states and local school boards, and a cultural shift away from individual achievement toward a general dumbing-down to ensure equal outcomes for all.
The nationalization of education began in 1965 with the Elementary and Secondary Education Act (ESEA) with its funding to states (not families) to educate low-income students. It took a giant step forward in 1979, when President Jimmy Carter signed the law that created the U.S. Department of Education. It took a major leap forward in 2002 when Edward Kennedy's No Child Left Behind Act (a reauthorization of the ESEA) was signed into law by President George W. Bush.
Q: Should it be the federal goverment's role to "fix up your classrooms and get you the books, equipment and computers you need to learn?"
A: See the Tenth Amendment to the Constitution of the United States.
