Op Ed: "Federal Overreach Into Education"

Federal Overreach Into Education 

by Johnnelle Raines

Federal control over education has been expanding ever since the 60's with steadily decreasing student achievement results. The Obama Administration not only has taken control over our banks, the automobile industry, and Health Care... it has now taken over education by the promise of funding and the threat of withholding funding. Through the Common Core State Standards Initiative our Federal government has overreached its Constitutional boundaries. 


Under US Code Title 20 Education Chapter 48 Section 3403 the code states and I quote.. 


 (a) Rights of local governments and educational institutions It is the intention of the Congress in the establishment of the Department to protect the rights of State and local governments and public and private educational institutions in the areas of educational policies and administration of programs and to strengthen and improve the control of such governments and institutions over their own educational programs and policies. The establishment of the Department of Education shall not increase the authority of the Federal Government over education or diminish the responsibility for education which is reserved to the States and the local school systems and other instrumentalities of the States. 


 (b) Curriculum, administration, and personnel; library resources No provision of a program administered by the Secretary or by any other officer of the Department shall be construed to authorize the Secretary or any such officer to exercise any direction, supervision, or control over the curriculum, program of instruction, administration, or personnel of any educational institution, school, or school system, over any accrediting agency or association, or over the selection or content of library resources, textbooks, or other instructional materials by any educational institution or school system, except to the extent authorized by law. 


 (c) Funding under pre-existing programs The Secretary shall not, during the period within eight months after May 4, 1980, take any action to withhold, suspend, or terminate funds under any program transferred by this chapter by reason of the failure of any State to comply with any applicable law requiring the administration of such a program through a single organizational unit. Furthermore, this 


Core Curriculum is based on a one size fits all education and it will make our local schools accountable to Washington DC and not accountable to our parents. Parents have a right to decide what their children need to learn as well as when they need to learn it. After all it is our hard earned tax dollars that are paying for education. 


As a parent I should be able to go to my local school board if I am having issues about the curriculum … I shouldn't have to go to Washington DC to address my problems. The Federal funds attached to accepting this Core Curriculum are a bribe so the Federal Government can take control of our most precious resource...our children. Right now these Core Curriculum Standards are only for English and Math, but you can bet the wheels are turning for it to include Social Studies and Science in the near future. Can you imagine what the liberal out of state bureaucrats will develop? The assessment tool being used for these “RACE TO THE TOP” funds are not objective with right and wrong answers which are easily scored and easy to compare results. They are highly subjective questions which can only be scored through use of a rubric which is based on an evaluator's opinion...and opinions differ greatly among evaluators. By accepting and signing on to this Common Core State Standards Initiative the Federal Government has achieved its goal of forcing South Carolina teachers to indoctrinate and promote opinions, beliefs,subjective feelings, political correctness, multiculturalism, homosexuality, global warming, and social justice all under the guise of trying to “help” us fix SC education problems. Ronald Reagan said,The nine most terrifying words in the English language are: 'I'm from the government and I'm here to help.'" And Jesus said, "...you shall know the truth, and the truth shall make you free". And the truth my fellow SC citizens is ...local educators and parents are better at deciding what the needs of their students are... NOT the Federal Government. Please contact your SC representative and ask them to support Senate Bill 604 for opting out of the Common Core Standards. 


Johnnelle Raines 
VP Conservatives of the Upstate