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Higher Standards: We'd Love to But...
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Conclusion
Inevitably, the success or failure of legislation is a function of many variables. So too with the various standards-raising proposals of the past twelve years. The above should not be construed as a claim for monocausality.
Caveat made, there is a striking pattern. For all the public and political support for standards, politicians, and congressmen in particular, have failed to deliver them. Of the five major efforts, two failed to become law and three exert little federal power to raise standards. In each case, liberals and antistatist made demands that could not be reconciled. Liberals refused to support standards unless federal action was taken to remedy the per pupil funding differences between school districts, a phenomenon that is largely a function of our federal system. Antistatists, on the other hand, would not brook federal usurpation of longstanding local and state prerogatives over curricula and school funding.
No easy compromises were available because ultimately the standards debate was, ingreat part, a philosophical debate over the extent of national governmental power in America’s federal system. As many times in the past, the left wanted an increased federal presence to remedy a social inequity; the right, meanwhile, argued in favor of preserving the existing apportionment of power between the national government and states. In the case of standards, the result was policy lacking power to get the job done. This is not what the public or their representatives wanted. Unfortunately, this is what we got and there’s no reason to believe that we will get anything better in the foreseeable future.
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18
Conclusion
Inevitably, the success or failure of legislation is a function of many variables. So too
with the various standards-raising proposals of the past twelve years. The above should
not be construed as a claim for monocausality.
Caveat made, there is a striking pattern. For all the public and political support for
standards, politicians, and congressmen in particular, have failed to deliver them. Of the
five major efforts, two failed to become law and three exert little federal power to raise
standards. In each case, liberals and antistatist made demands that could not be
reconciled. Liberals refused to support standards unless federal action was taken to
remedy the per pupil funding differences between school districts, a phenomenon that is
largely a function of our federal system. Antistatists, on the other hand, would not brook
federal usurpation of longstanding local and state prerogatives over curricula and school
funding.
No easy compromises were available because ultimately the standards debate was, in
great part, a philosophical debate over the extent of national governmental power in
America’s federal system. As many times in the past, the left wanted an increased
federal presence to remedy a social inequity; the right, meanwhile, argued in favor of
preserving the existing apportionment of power between the national government and
states. In the case of standards, the result was policy lacking power to get the job done.
This is not what the public or their representatives wanted. Unfortunately, this is what
we got and there’s no reason to believe that we will get anything better in the foreseeable
future.
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