13 Ways the 113th Congress Can Improve Education in America
By Lindsey Burke and Rachel SheffieldMay 15, 2013
Abstract
Every year, taxpayers must send billions of dollars to Washington in order to fund federal education programs through the U.S. Department of Education and other agencies—which then redistribute that money back to individual states through a complex system of formula and competitive grant programs. The largest K–12 education law, No Child Left Behind, on its own has more than 60 competitive grant programs. Yet Washington’s efforts to improve American K–12 education have largely failed over the past half century, while saddling states and local school districts with a tremendous bureaucratic compliance burden. States and schools end up mired in red tape, their focus misdirected to Washington demands, not student needs. Federal education spending and intervention continue to grow, yet this intervention has merely weakened states’—and parents’—education decision-making authority. This Heritage FoundationBackgrounder contains 13 steps Congress should consider to improve American education and restore education decision-making authority to those closest to the students.There is no shortage of opportunities for Congress to reform federal education policy. Dozens of federal education programs are managed by well-intentioned yet disconnected bureaucrats in Washington, who are far removed from the needs of teachers and children in the classroom.
Taxpayers, meanwhile, must send billions of dollars every year to Washington to fund federal education programs housed within the U.S. Department of Education and other agencies, which redistribute that money back to states through myriad formula and competitive grant programs. In order to ensure that their share of education funding is returned to them, states and schools must navigate a complex and time-consuming process of applying for grants, constantly monitoring changes in program regulations, and submitting proof to the Department of Education that they are meeting federal benchmarks. No Child Left Behind is the largest K–12 education law, and alone contains more than 60 competitive grant programs. Regulations on the law have been promulgated over 100 times in the decade following NCLB’s enactment.[1]
It is no wonder that state education agencies have grown dramatically over the decades; the regulatory maze through which school districts must maneuver seems to grow more convoluted with every Congress. That maze diverts the attention of school leaders and teachers on whom the burden of complying with federal regulations falls, leaving them with less and less time to focus on their most important job: teaching. Federal intervention has failed to increase achievement outcomes over the past half century, yet has cost taxpayers trillions of dollars, has grown bureaucracy, and has weakened states’ education decision-making authority.
The Founders placed the important job of educating America’s children with states, localities, and most critically, parents. The Constitution does not mention the word “education,” even though its architects believed in its supreme importance. “I look to the diffusion of light and education as the resource to be relied on for ameliorating the condition, promoting the virtue, and advancing the happiness of man,” wrote