You
no doubt think I have lost my mind by considering this topic in my blog. I want to assure you that my mother did not
raise a fool! Most answers to this
question are filled with emotion and political exaggerations with very little
honest analysis. I want to remind you
that “Simpson” is Scots-Irish (or Scotch-Irish, take your pick), and my
sub-conscious mind is filled with distrust of any national government. This attitude was born and nurtured in the
treatment of the Scots-Irish by the British in Europe and Colonial
America. It was the population in the
back country dominated by the Scots-Irish that led revolts against the British
power structure located in the coastal plain because of the way the colonial
governments neglected and used them as a buffer against the Indians. In Virginia this grievance led to Bacon’s
Rebellion and the Parson’s Cause, and in North Carolina it ignited the
Regulator Movement. In our day this distrust
is often expressed in the battle over who controls education: “Just leave us alone; we know what’s best for
our children.”
We have this political
conflict because of the Constitution of the United States. Education is not mentioned in the
Constitution, and for this reason, the Reserved
Powers Clause of the 10th Amendment applies. Any powers not given to the Federal
Government in the Constitution are reserved for the people and the states. For strict
constructionists this means that the Federal Government has no business
being involved in the governance of education.
This does not mean that the Founding Fathers were not concerned about
education in this new Republic; in fact, many were very concerned, including
Thomas Jefferson.
On the other side, broad constructionists will take the
General Welfare Clause, Congress shall
have the power to provide for the general welfare (Article I Section 8), and argue that having an educated
population promotes the general welfare of the country, and the federal
government must be involved.
Historically, we have looked
to other countries and envied their educational systems. In the 1800s we were envious of the
educational system in Prussia, which by 1871 was the leading state in the
imperial German Reich. Before World War
II and the self-destruction of Germany by the Nazis, German education was the
envy of the world. In the more recent
decades of the 1970s and 1980s, our envy was Japan and later Singapore, or any
other nation in Asia whose students scored much higher in math and science than
our students. Most recently our envy has
been directed toward Finland. What is
most interesting to note is that most of these countries had or have well
defined national educational standards.
In the current political
climate, we hear politicians proclaim, “The Federal government has no business
running education; leave it to the states.”
Let the states govern education, establish assessment policies, and set
proficiency levels on state exams, not national exams. This all sounds good except for one reality:
states have a tendency to cheat, including Tennessee. Just a few years back, Tennessee had set the
scores for demonstrating proficiency in the academic fields so low that 70% and
80% of our students were classified as proficient in the core academic subjects. Everyone knew it was a lie. But most of the other states were doing the
same, so we jumped on the same band wagon.
However, we were
exposed! We do have national tests: the National Assessment of Educational
Progress (NAEP) tests are administered by the Federal government to samples of
students in grades 4, 8, and 12. Instead
of having proficiency rates of 70% and 80%, our proficiency rates were 20% and
30%. A few months back I was in a
meeting with our Commissioner of Education, Candice McQueen.
She had met recently with a group of corporate leaders, and they were
discussing the level of education needed for their future workforce. They informed our Commissioner that they
looked only at NAEP scores to determine the educational level of the population
because they could not trust the proficiency
levels determined by state exams. This
is a sad state of affairs.
How often have I heard,
“Washington should not tell us how to run our schools; we know what’s best for
our children!” Do we? I have devoted my entire adult life to
education. Since 1973, I have observed,
worked with, or worked against state departments of education and local school
boards in two different states. I have
known some of the most remarkable officials in state departments of education
and on local school boards. They have
worked selflessly to improve our schools.
But on the other side, I have witnessed some of the most educationally
unsound policies imaginable come from state departments of education and local
school boards. These policies usually
originate from individuals so limited in their life experiences that they have
no idea what is going on around the world.
I have to conclude that local people do not always know what is best for
their children. Our competition is not
with the local community a few miles down the road or even with the schools in
another state. The competition is
global, and the losers will be left in the wake of the educational systems in
countries whose students perform at the highest levels. Too few of our students perform at the highest
levels. We are not number one, two, or
three.
I don’t ask you to agree
with everything I have said in this blog, but I do ask you to consider the
points I have made.
Bless you my children,
Dr. Terry L. Simpson
Director of Teacher Education
Maryville College
