Structure of our Educational System

There has been a lot of discussion about whether ultimate authority over schools should lie with the Federal, State, or Local governments. There have been heated arguments and valid points for each. Here is how I believe it should be organized:

Role of the Federal Government in education

The Federal Government’s role in public education should consist of three functions: Establishing minimum standards and ensuring schools meet these standards, ensuring that all students have equal access to educational facilities, and providing resources to assist States and local school boards.

Establishing Minimum Standards

The Federal government should establish minimum standards on what children should master at each grade level. It should be noted that these standards should be the bare minimum of what each child should know. The Federal Department of Education only sets the standards, they should not be able to dictate how students are taught, nor be able to dictate specific curricula. The Federal government should establish a method, such as testing, to ensure that students are meeting these minimum standards each year. But the tests should be general enough so that teachers do not have to spend time “teaching for the test”.

Ensuring that all students have equal access to educational facilities

Local school boards, and even States, have a horrible record of discrimination based on race, sex, nationality, sexual orientation, and more. This is unacceptable, but it still happens. The 14th Amendment, along with federal civil rights laws, guarantees equal rights, so that provided the Federal government with the authority to oversee all public schools to ensure that students’ rights are not being violated.

Providing Resources to assist States and local school boards

The Federal Government should also provide additional optional resources to States and local schools board. These could include curricula, class lessons, physical resources, grants, and anything else that could help. The key word here is optional; each State or school board can choose to use all, some, or none of these resources as they see fit.

Role of the State Government’s in education

State governments can expand on the minimum standards established by the Federal Government, and offer additional subjects. State Governments can dictate curriculum, school schedules, and set policies that all schools in the state must follow, so long as those policies do not contradict the Federal government’s minimum standards or restrict equal access to educational facilities.

Role of Local School Boards

Local school boards are the final authority over how their schools are operated. Local school boards are the closest officials to the students and parents they serve. Local school boards should be the ones setting individual school schedules, deciding which classes will be offered at each school, assigning schools to geographic areas, and setting employment policies and salaries, etc. Local school boards can expand on the minimums established at the Federal and State levels, but cannot reduce them.

Common Core

Much has been written about Common Core, and, sadly, most of what you have read has been wrong. Common Core is simply a set of minimum standards in language and math that students in each grade should be able to meet.   It does not dictate, or even suggest, how schools accomplish these goals.  It does not mandate any changes in teaching methods. It does not even provide curriculum. Common Core was created by outside the political system. It does not have a political agenda. It is solely concerned with our children’s education.

For example, here is one item from the Third Grade Math standards:

Represent and solve problems involving multiplication and division.

CCSS.MATH.CONTENT.3.OA.A.1
Interpret products of whole numbers, e.g., interpret 5 × 7 as the total number of objects in 5 groups of 7 objects each. For example, describe a context in which a total number of objects can be expressed as 5 × 7.

CCSS.MATH.CONTENT.3.OA.A.2
Interpret whole-number quotients of whole numbers, e.g., interpret 56 ÷ 8 as the number of objects in each share when 56 objects are partitioned equally into 8 shares, or as a number of shares when 56 objects are partitioned into equal shares of 8 objects each. For example, describe a context in which a number of shares or a number of groups can be expressed as 56 ÷ 8.

CCSS.MATH.CONTENT.3.OA.A.3
Use multiplication and division within 100 to solve word problems in situations involving equal groups, arrays, and measurement quantities, e.g., by using drawings and equations with a symbol for the unknown number to represent the problem.¹

CCSS.MATH.CONTENT.3.OA.A.4
Determine the unknown whole number in a multiplication or division equation relating three whole numbers. For example, determine the unknown number that makes the equation true in each of the equations 8 × ? = 48, 5 = _ ÷ 3, 6 × 6 = ?

Click here to read the full Common Core standards

Parental Control

The hot argument of today is over parental control over their child’s education.  This is an important issue, and parents absolutely should have a say in how their child is educated.  Parents exercise their control over their schools at the ballot box, when they vote for President, Members of Congress, their Governor, their State legislators, and their local school board members.  Parents can also make their voices heard by attending public hearings and meeting individually with their local representatives and their children’s teachers.  They can also join the PTA.

But individual parents do not get to dictate policies to their school.  They do not get to opt their child out of individual lessons just because they object to the lesson, unless the class is one that is specifically designed to allow them to opt out.  Allowing individual parents to pick and choose which policies they will follow would be like allowing drivers to choose which traffic laws they will obey.  It’s ludicrous and anti-democratic!

School Choice

Should parents get to choose what K-12 public school their child attends?  The short answer: NO!   Every school in a district is mapped to certain geographic areas in the district. That mapping is done at the local level using a variety of factors to ensure that all students have equal access to educational facilities.

Now, we all know that some schools are simply better than others within any given school district.  That is not acceptable, but the solution is to improve the lower performing schools.  The answer is NOT to let parents redirect their children to the better schools.  That is a horrible idea for two reasons:  (1) It gives children of parents with more financial resources an advantage over those children whose parents cannot afford to transport their children to other schools, and (2) It results the better schools getting even better while leaving the under-performing schools with even less resources.  In other words, allowing parents to choose which public school their child attends just makes the entire system weaker.

Of course, parents always have the option to send their child to a private school of their choice, if they have the financial resources to pay for the school, or if the school offers their child a scholarship.

Critical Race Theory

Critical Race Theory has been around for decades. It is an advanced topic discussed in graduate-level sociology classes and in some law schools.  It is NOT taught in K-12 schools.  In a nutshell, Critical Race Theory looks at systemic racism in our society, attempts to understood its roots, and looks for ways to address it. CRT does NOT attempt to assign blame. CRT does not imply that whites are inferior to blacks.  CRT does NOT blame whites for racism.

Here is an excellent article that explains what CRT really is, and how it is NOT what people are told:  https://www.edweek.org/leadership/what-is-critical-race-theory-and-why-is-it-under-attack/2021/05

Controversial and Offensive Topics in Education

It has been argued that books such as Life is Funny, which include topics such as pedophilia, gay-sex, trans sex, and rape, “desensitize children and rips them of their innocence.”  This is nonsense. Kids are exposed to much more explicit materials on the Internet and outside school every day.

In fact, when children are supported by an adult guide, research shows that when they read such “offensive” material, they are more apt to be empathetic, more capable of dealing with diversity, and more likely to participate in civic activities.

“Education is designed to expand our horizons and broaden our perspective. Its purpose is not to limit our studies only to those ideals we personally agree with,” said Brome. “If parents wish to limit their child’s access to certain points of view, then let them do that in their roles as parents without limiting access to what my grandchildren can read in their schools.”  (Janet Brome)

Recently, focus has been given to books that explore gender identity issues, sometimes in a graphic manner.  Those who are offended by the topic attempt to falsely label these books as pornographic, simply because they may describe or depict a sexual act within the context of the information being provided.  This is not pornography, since its purpose is not to sexually arose.

“Isolated passages that you deem explicit or graphic, I suggest are not central to the works as a whole and are used by the authors to illustrate the sometimes ugly and very real-world in which they have lived or observed. Further, our students’ social media channels allow them unfettered access to much more objectionable material than we would find on the shelves at either Warren County high school.”  (Erin Kennedy)

The whole point of a library is to provide access to full range of views on many topics, and some people with find some of these topics offensive. Libraries follow guidelines when deciding what books to carry, and these guidelines have many different criteria. For example, the American Library Association has extensive guidelines, and you can read them here.

Just because a book offends someone is no reason to have it removed. Indeed, they are often books that carry the most important messages. Many of the advances and changes in society throughout history were brought about by books considered offensive. They are essential to our education.

For example, after writing that Venus orbited the sun rather than the Earth, Galileo was tried for heresy and confined to house arrest for the rest of his life, and publication of any of his works was forbidden!

Nobody is suggesting that school libraries carry Playboy or other pornographic materials. However, books should not be banned solely because they contain isolated sexually explicit passages. The books must be judged on their complete contents and the contexts in which the passages were meant. Even the Bible has some language that many would consider sexually explicit.If we start letting politicians decide what books libraries can and cannot carry, we are starting down a very slippery slope indeed.

The First Amendment is there to protect our rights to free speech and freedom of the press, and Congress has long-recognized that libraries are a great conduit for ensuring the people have access to a full range of ideas expressed under the First Amendment.

Read my blog article about Burning Books for more information.