by Michael Maharrey

No area of life cries out for local control louder than the education of our children.

With a vast diversity of student populations, learning styles, cultural makeup, socioeconomic demographics and countless other factors, it only makes sense that local people, who understand the needs of the community, make decisions on how to educate their kids.

But as in most other areas of life, politicians and academic elites think they know what’s best, and they utilize the mechanisms of the federal government to centralize, standardize and homogenize education all across this vast and diverse nation.

In 1979, Congress created the Department of Education, a blatant overstep of its authority. The Constitution grants the federal government no power to regulate, oversee or take any role at all in education.

Zero. Zilch. Nada.
It doesn’t even hint at it. Can anybody argue that teaching children falls into sphere of responsibility that James Madison assured ratifiers the Constitution left to the states?

“The powers reserved to the several States will extend to all objects which, in the ordinary course of affairs, concern the lives, liberties and properties of the people, and the internal order, improvement and prosperity of the State.â€