Lack of Good With Government Control
Published: Mon, 02/27/12
Hello, , from NHERI.
A
common mantra amongst advocates of public schooling is the need for government control
over the education of children in all schooling settings. The same mantra
emanates from many scholars who claim no bias for or against State-run
schooling, or for or against free home-based education. Yet, where, if
anywhere, is evidence on which advocates of government control base their call
for State control?
One
should consider just two compelling areas of research information that
undermine the call for State control of children's education. One is addressed
in Dr. Charles Murray's recently penned piece entitled "Do We Need the
Department of Education?" [note 1] Based on three criteria, his is a pithy and
logically sound answer to his article's question. The first question he asks
is, "Is the Department of Education constitutional?" In a nutshell, no. Dr.
Murray writes:
Article 1, Section 8 of the Constitution enumerates the things over which Congress has the power to legislate. Not only does the list not include education, there is no plausible rationale for squeezing education in under the commerce clause. I'm sure the Supreme Court found a rationale, but it cannot have been plausible.
His
second question is, "Are there serious problems in education that can be solved
only at the federal level?" His answer is, maybe, for things like ending racist
segregation in public (State) schools. But one would not need a federal
Department of Education but rather perhaps only a federal court decision.
Dr.
Murray's third question follows: "So what is the federal government's track
record in education?" Simply put, he
finds the data answer it this way - not very good. He takes a look at federal
academic achievement data and finds:
The bad news is that the baseline year of 1978 represents the nadir of the test score decline from the mid-1960s through the 1970s. Probably we are today about where we were in math achievement in the 1960s. For reading, the story is even bleaker. The small gains among fourth graders diminish by eighth grade and vanish by the twelfth grade. And once again, the baseline tests in the 1970s represent a nadir.
A
more careful look at one state, Iowa - that has had very stable demographic
conditions over the past 70 years and used one standardized test for over 50
years - reveals more bad news associated with federal involvement and control
over education. Here is how the scholar puts it:
What the data show is that when the federal government decided to get involved on a large scale in K-12 education in 1965, Iowa's education had been improving substantially since the first test was administered in 1942. There is reason to think that the same thing had been happening throughout the country. ..... American education had been improving since World War II. Then, when the federal government began to get involved, it got worse. I will not try to make the case that federal involvement caused the downturn. ..... But this much can certainly be said: The overall data on the performance of American K-12 students give no reason to think that federal involvement, which took the form of the Department of Education after 1979, has been an engine of improvement.
Now
to the second area of research evidence regarding government control and
whether education is generally improved by it. A nationwide study by Ray and
Eagleson carefully scrutinized the relationship between the college-admissions
(or college-aptitude) SAT scores of students who were homeschooled and the
degree of state regulation of homeschooling. The SAT scores of homeschool
students from low-, medium-, and high-regulation states were first compared for
states whose degree of regulation had not changed for the 10 years preceding
and including the year of SAT testing.
Simply
put, there were no significant differences between students' SAT scores in the
three groups (of degrees of state regulation of homeschooling) for any of the
three test scores (verbal, math, and total). Further, In all cases, the states
with the highest degree of state regulation had the lowest average SAT scores.
Does either of the two areas of research above substantiate, "beyond a shadow
of a doubt," that government control of education harms or does not help
students. No. The more important thing to consider, however, in a free nation
that has a Constitution as its highest law is that the two lines of evidence
show no positive association between government control and children's
learning. Further, there is even some evidence of a negative correlation.
Policymakers
ought to think twice, or more, and consider solid research evidence and constitutional theory before attempting
to lay more controls and regulation on any schooling choices, especially
private and free ones like parent-led home-based education.
Brian D. Ray, Ph.D.
National Home Education Research Institute
P.S. Please feel free to send us your questions about homeschooling and we will
try to answer them in upcoming messages.
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Notes:
1.Murray, Charles. (2012, January). Do we need the Department of Education? Imprimis, 41(10), retrieved February 27,
2012 from http://www.hillsdale.edu/news/imprimis/archive/issue.asp?year=2012&month=01.
2. Ray, Brian D., & Eagleson, Bruce K. (2008, August 14). State regulation of homeschooling and homeschoolers' SAT scores. Journal of Academic Leadership, 6(3). Retrieved February 27, 2012 from http://www.academicleadership.org/1511/state_regulation_of_homeschooling_and_homeschoolers_sat_scores/.