The never-ending argument over education reform continues
right now in the arena of individual states. This is a perfect example of how
federalism manifests itself so that states have control over education and
therefore vary in their approaches in funding and reforming the system.
With the
country in an economic slump, states continue to cut funding to education. This
has become such a problem that some districts have taken actions to sue
the state over funding. The dispute over education has become increasingly
partisan and criticism has been constant about the quality of education.
The benefit of having a federalist system is that it allows for “laboratories
of democracy” to be tested out in different places to see what works best. For
example, some believe that the best way to improve low performing schools is to
turn
these schools into charter schools that are funded by non-profits. Others
think that giving underprivileged children vouchers for private schools is the
answer to improving the education system. Some also think that giving more
funding to public schools will solve the problem and create better schools.
The main
criticism to federalism is that it can create inequality between states and
with education, even between districts. While some charter schools have been a great
success, others have failed and there is not enough evidence yet to say if
charter schools are really the best solution. There is also a huge amount of
inequality between how much states pay per student even though there does not
appear to be a correlation between spending
and quality of education.
While the
national government has been involved implementing programs such as No Child
Left Behind and more recently Race to the Top, for now the two presidential
candidates have kept
silent on their future plans for education reform. So although education is
still a hot topic on everyone’s mind, there does not seem to be a big push for a
large-scale national reform. This means that for now, it is up to the states to
think about the children until a window opens up for someone in Washington.
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