uhh-- let me be a counterpoint to that--
the "strings" attached to federal funding are the only thing that allows some children to have access to reasonable education at all.
Check out the 2e forums here if you don't believe me. ALL of the 2e children here would be kicked to the curb by one or more potential schooling options if those institutions weren't on some level afraid of noncompliance with the feds.
I for one am not one bit sorry for ADA and IDEA.
I do not think the point is around ADA/IDEA or Title IX. It is the way that an administration goes about these issues. When all the power is given to the Bureaucracy the results are pretty predictable as Val pointed out. There has to be a way of putting more power to the parents of the children. To be honest,
Vouchers are the only real idea anyone has come up with to put power into the hands of the parents.Homeschooling is legal in all 50 states.
I don't really mean that with any snark intended, by the way.
Also-- the post above that one is an example of what I mean--
Errr, I think so... IDEA and ADA are laws, but if let's say private schools accept federal assistance funds like my DS private school then they have to honor reasonable accommodations on the IEPs. DS private school currently believes they have the right to ignore DS IEP for things like extended time and foreign language exemption, even though they offer those exemptions to other students, because they want to decide. I had previously filed a State complaint to get District compliant for DS IEP (reevaluations were behind and IEP had not reconvened in the past 12 months). Then I asked who enforces the IEP? I was told that I had to file an Office of Civil Rights complaint. IEP is a Federal document. Sounds OTT, but that's the procedure.
I have observed personally both with my own child and
many like her-- charter schools and private schools often feel that they simply
don't have to-- when it comes to appropriate educational opportunities, appropriate accommodations, or even basic safety or removal of disability-based barriers to access.
They truly don't think that the federal laws about such things apply to them in the first place.
This IS precisely what such schools are obligated for once they accept federal funding. I don't see the federal bureaucrats as my enemies. They've got the backs of families like mine, and I've been able to leverage that to get my child an education in the public school system as a result of knowing what those laws say, and insisting that schools have those obligations. I've encouraged them to consult their own attorneys and to reach out for the help of the feds, in maintaining
compliance. 
Not advice-- just saying that it has definitely worked for me.
Without someone who is willing to BACK those laws (like OCR), kids like mine have got nothing preventing schools from telling us to pound sand, we're too much trouble.
You'll have to take my word for it-- they can, and they DO.
I think that this is central to the discussion. Because it answers the question of why decentralization, local control, etc. is not necessarily a great idea.
