Description
Book SynopsisThomas Jefferson warned that ''the natural progress of things is for liberty to yield and government to gain ground.'' American elementary and secondary education shows how right he was. Two centuries ago the founders rejected federal participation in education and even rejected George Washington''s plans on establishing a national university. It should be of little surprise, then, that the term ''education'' appears nowhere in the Constitution. Few early Americans would have considered providing education a proper function of local or state governments, much less some distant federal government. Federal control of the nation''s schools would have simply been unthinkable. This view was the prevailing one well into the 20th century. In the 1980s, Ronald Reagan campaigned, in part, on a proposal to close the federal department of education. How things have changed in a few short decades. Today, every state requires children to attend school, and most dictate precisely what the children w
Trade ReviewNeal McCluskey has written an energetic critique of federal education policy and the federal government's growing role in K-12 schooling. While some readers may disagree with McCluskey's analysis, this is a book certain to provoke lively debate. -- Frederick M. Hess, director of education policy studies at the American Enterprise Institute
Excellent at several levels, Feds in the Classroom provides essential historical background and dissects key programs, court cases, and statistics. McCluskey brilliantly illustrates how intervention often, if not typically, produces the opposite of the intended result, and he points the way out of the political morass that engulfs U.S. K-12 education. -- John Merrifield, University of Texas, San Antonio
The expansion of the federal government's role in education has been ineluctable, and mostly destructive. This book serves as a much-needed reminder that 'accountablity' in education must mean accountability to parents, not to federal mandarins. -- Michael Greve, American Enterprise Institute
McCluskey shows how Washington politicians—representing bureaucrats and unions, rather than parents and students—wrestled control of public schools from local communities. Washington's soaring spending and meddlesome regulations have brought academic mediocrity and social strife. McCluskey weaves through the history, law, economics, and politics of federal education policy, and offers a commonsense solution that empowers parents and local communities. It is a well-researched and fascinating book for anyone interested in fixing America's schools. -- Brian Riedl, The Heritage Foundation
McCluskey reminds readers why well-intentioned calls for federal leadership and shiny plans for national programs can ultimately prove treacherous. * Education Next: Journal of Opinion And Research *
The over-riding value of Neal McCluskey’s work is that it shows that most federal educational programs are overwhelmingly useless, if not counter-productive. -- Myron Lieberman, chairman, Education Policy Institute
Neal McCluskey's Feds in the Classroom is an essential read for policy-makers at any level of government. McCluskey compiles an accurate report card for our nation making it clear that only serious change will save the American public education system from flunking outright. Feds in the Classroom provides an historical, constitutional, and judicial scrutiny of federal education policy that I recommend to anyone who wants to know why America is not the global leader in public education, despite our extraordinary resources and limitless supply of American ingenuity. McCluskey's book has quickly become an essential resource for myself and my staff, and I encourage anyone interested in education policy to arm themselves with the facts provided within it. -- Congressman Scott Garrett (R-NJ)
Table of ContentsChapter 1 From the First Settlers to the Fifties: Going From Freedom to the Feds Chapter 2 Rise of the Feds: From the Great Society to Y2K Chapter 3 "No Child Left Behind": The Feds Triumphant Chapter 4 The Reckoning: A Report Card for the Feds Chapter 5 Enforce the Constitution: Make No Federal Policy Chapter 6 How the Judiciary Found the Federal Role Chapter 7 No G-Men Need Apply Chapter 8 Out of the Jaws: A Broad Roadmap for Reform
