I hear you, blackcat, and see the same things you describe, happening in many States and many districts. These trends have been occurring under a different administration.
Yet I believe we cannot look to the selection of DeVos or any other individual to head the US Department of Education as the cure. There are a few things which "everyone should know"...
1) The
10th amendment to the US Constitution echoes an earlier provision of the Articles of Confederation: "
The powers not delegated to the United States by the Constitution, nor prohibited by it to the States, are reserved to the States respectively, or to the people". The federal government has not been granted the power to direct public education; That power belongs to the States and to the people.
2) The League of Women Voters provides a decent
timeline and history of scope creep: federal encroachment into local education policy and practice.
3) The US Department of Education (
USDoE) was first created in 1979. Its functions have largely been to provide funding
with strings attached.... States and districts willingly accept the money... and then must comply with a growing set of rules and regulations, thereby "willingly" giving up local control.
For example: Statewide Longitudinal Data Systems, US DoE factsheet, July 2009. Schools are therefore no longer
accountable to students, parents, and local community taxpayers... but are
accountable to federal government.
4) A law of physics which states "
An object in motion will stay in motion until force is applied" seems to apply to this type of government encroachment as well... it will continue until force is applied. The "force" would be our communication to Senators, NAGC, etc... largely a voice
foregoing federal funding and the attached federal control... thereby truly having local control over all aspects of public education for children in that geographical area.
