Tuesday, February 10, 2015

Jindal Sends Mixed Messages Re: Restoring The Constitution

I don't see any reason to have education policed at the federal level.  I can understand having the former Office of Education, which gathered and tracked data and such, but let me ask you this--is education any better now than it was when President Carter approved the Department of Education?  I don't see anywhere in the Constitution that justifies the behemoth we currently have and I support the rollback of de facto national standards:
Louisiana Gov. Bobby Jindal has unveiled a 42-page proposal to reform American education at the national level, one of the clearest signs yet that he is laying the groundwork to jump into the 2016 presidential primary.

At the heart of his proposal is a total repudiation of Common Core, as well as a general rollback of federal authority, increased school choice options for parents and greater administrative freedom for educators.
One wonders how there can be a "general rollback of federal authority" while the federal government increases school choice options for parents and gives administrative freedom to educators, but let's continue:
While Jindal supported the English and math standards just a few years ago, he has changed his mind and been attacking them constantly since last spring, when he gave a speech comparing them to policies in the Soviet Union.

Jindal has been battling his own school superintendent and state school board for over half a year in an effort to force Louisiana off the standards. He has also filed a lawsuit against the federal government, claiming that Common Core is an illegal federal intrusion into state sovereignty.

Accordingly, in Jindal’s plan, he proposes to “repeal Common Core and restore state and local standards.” He accuses “central planners” in the federal government of creating a de facto national curriculum “through deception” by having the standards crafted by several non-profits rather than by Department of Education apparatchiks.
I'm getting mixed messages here.  Of course I support school choice and vouchers and the like, a true constitutionalist would insist that those issues be decided at the state and local level.

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