The Great Debate: Who's In Charge of Education?

When it comes to the question: Should the education system be controlled by the state or the feds, hearts start beating faster and blood pressure raises. Many people have some heavy feelings towards this topic. Especially in recent educational debates, people from all backgrounds have shared their feelings regarding Common Core, teacher salary, and standardized testing with at least a neighbor. This is because the education system quite literally affects everyone in the nation. Nearly every citizen has had a direct interaction with the system. Whether each person attended school growing up, has a child of his or her own in attendance, or has simply paid hard earned money in tax dollars towards the organization, one thing is sure: a great deal of the welfare and wellbeing of our country resides in our education system. Naturally, each citizen should be concerned with how well it is being taken care of.

Because the education system influences so much, it is natural to assume that bother the federal government and local government should be interested in how it is doing. However, many people become very skeptical when they hear that the White House is trying to take over the decisions that will impact their local communities, but they become frustrated when local funds do not allow for a fair education. As an elementary education graduate myself, I have heard many snide remarks made about Common Core, how it changed the way Mathematics was being taught, and how ridiculous and confusing it seemed. However, I also often heard remarks made about how ridiculous teacher salaries were, how schools needed to have more funding for resources to teach students, and that equity should be spread evenly to all different areas in the United States so that students from all backgrounds could have a fair education. Surely, the lack in funding could easily be taken care of with some aid from the federal government.

The problem is that there is no way the federal government will slap a check down for each school district in the nation without any stipulation for how that check is going to be spent. The other problem is that almost no school district is begging for big brother to come sit in on their board meetings to tell them how he thinks their local area would be best directed. Thus, there is tension between the two.

So how should we navigate educational issues? In the book, Letters to a Young Education Reformer, Frederick M. Hess speaks on the power of listening and working together. This sounds like a no brainer, as it is almost always the answer whenever two sides develop conflict. “Seek to understand before being understood” is one of my greatest personal mantras. Perhaps the real power behind the education system will stem from local and federal influencers working together toward the same common goal: helping all children receive an education that caters to their individual needs. Setting politics, personal gain, and persuasion aside – lets do better to work together and find common ground.