Maybe the Department of Education should be reduced to just a liscensing bureau?
Why not limit the government from being in the classroom?
Favorite Answer
As mentioned by me and others when you previously asked this question, the demands placed on public education require a bureaucracy at the state level to handle and sort federal requirements. It would be unfair to ask local Boards of Education to deal with the demands of special education, Title 1 programs, school accreditation, No Child Left Behind, and so on. Furthermore, without a state Department of Education, it would be impossible for states to gather the reporting data required for No Child Left Behind. A state DoE can also recognize trends occurring across the state and can do things like promote promote programs that have been successful for other districts or target schools that need improvement.
Meanwhile, state-mandated curricula has been a good thing for public education. It has encouraged a larger discussion of standards and objectives for our students. It has promoted the growth and input from national teaching organizations–not unions–such as the National Council of Teachers of English to develop age-appropriate and consistent standards for reading and writing. The biggest and most beneficial effect it has had is that it has made it easier on our very mobile society. A parent of a 5th grader who moves from one end of the state to the other–or even to a town just 20 miles away–can now reasonably expect that the standards and expectations for the 5th grader will be the same. Before state-mandated curricula, it was absolute chaos without any consistency, even within counties.
The alternative to such government control is not attractive. Private schools, for example, are not held accountable to any standard but those they set for themselves. They have no taxpayer oversight on their School Boards (which means vouchers would cause taxation without representation), are not required to provide special education programs, are not required to have certified teachers or teachers with any college experience, and are not required to follow laws under No Child Left Behind. There is no consistency or accountability in private schools. This is not to say that private schools do not provide a good education–most Catholic schools I’ve seen provide an education that rivals neighboring public schools–but shows the inconsistency that can occur without DoE oversight. Parents considering sending their kids to private schools must thoroughly research the school to learn anything about its curricula, its standards, its teachers, and its programs. Meanwhile, parents who send their kids to public schools need only visit the state DoE webpage to have access to everything including previous years’ test scores. DoE oversight ensures consistency and accountability.
Your question and details imply that you are worried about politics swaying a state Department of Education rather than having people working in the best interests of our students. As a Kansan, I have seen the damages created when people put their political agendas ahead of our students. However, it’s a trade-off. Being public schools, we are required to have taxpayer oversight of how tax dollars are used (basic principle of taxation with representation) so we elect officials to oversee our school expenditures. If we don’t like these officials, it is our democratic duty to get involved in the political process and change the people working in the Department of Education. I didn’t like what I saw and I got involved. If you do not like what is happening at your Department of Education, I suggest you do the same.
