Tuesday, July 16, 2013

Stop the Power Struggles

When the country was first begun, divisions between State and Federal governments made considerable sense.  Maintaining contact between the different locations was a long and time consuming matter.  It was 1837 before access to telegraph.  The telephone wasn't invented until 1876.  Trains weren't much help in early stages of the railroad in the late 1800s.

The Revolutionary War was 1775-1783.  Signing of the Constitution was in 1787.  Granted, the area of the first thirteen states was small compared with the country, today, it still required horseback or primitive methods of transportation -- back and forth -- to keep in touch.

Only 39 of the 42 delegates to the Constitutional Convention signed on the dotted line.  Rhode Island refused to send anybody to represent them.  The reason -- you guessed it -- they didn't want the federal government interfering in Rhode Island affairs.  Ho-hum, ho-hum.

Everybody knows there would have been no union after the civil war without great concessions to the states.  It seems that states rights versus Federal control have been a never ending conflict ever since.  Sometimes it is simple childish squabbling, more or less power struggles for the sake of power struggles. 

But, really folks, some issues just are not Federal issues.  Perhaps gun "control" should be one of them.

Several states rights advocates are currently fighting the Common Core State Standards which were designed to make sure school children everywhere got exposed to consistent curricula.  In comes "Zorro and his sword" (conservative politicians) saying the Federal Government doesn't belong in education.  There is no more important area of government and none that will be better served by Federal oversight.  Such oversight would not only make sure all students were at least exposed to consistent subject matter.  It also assures that money is spread around better.  Students in impoverished states or districts will have more opportunities to learn than they would under local control.

There is a big enough discrepancy in teacher quality from classroom to classroom without aggravating the situation by letting local politicians get their unqualified selves in the mix.

Isn't it about time we set aside our power struggles and work toward the greater good?  This is especially the case concerning the education of our children.  It takes a lot more people to lead our country to success than just politicians.  You don't care about the kids?  Okay, care about yourselves.  They are your future, so you had best make good investments in them.

No comments:

Post a Comment