There is no mention of education in the Constitution. If that is the case, and it is, why is the federal government so deeply involved? Studies and policies variously labeled: federalism, A Nation At Risk, No Child Left Behind, and Common Core Standards are now being hotly debated as our new K-12 school year begins. To understand the current state of education in the light of history, let’s go back and look at it.

When the Constitution was created in 1787, the assumption under federalism was that power would be divided between the states and the federal government. Education would be the under control of the states, as would marriages and divorces.

This was pretty much the standard for many years, with each state doing whatever it thought best for its constituents when it came to education.

When the 14th Amendment of the Constitution was ratified in 1870, new terms arose to deal with the ending of slavery: States were forbidden from, “depriving any person of life, liberty, or property, without due process of law; nor to any person within its jurisdiction the equal protection of the laws.”

Federalism and the 14th Amendment clashed with the creation of Jim Crow laws enacted in the South. Blacks and whites did not have equal education.

The terms “due process of law” and “equal protection of the laws” first formed the basis of the landmark decision in the Plessy v. Ferguson Supreme Court decision of 1896, which enshrined states’ rights to segregate blacks and whites – as long as the education was equal.

Nearly 60 years later the Court reversed itself in the 1954 Brown v. Board of Education of Topeka, Kansas decision. In this judgment the Supreme Court ruled that separate education of blacks and whites was not equal and therefore must end. The Civil Rights movement began as a result and the federal government forcibly stepped in to Southern schools to end segregation.

In 1981, during the presidency of the conservative Ronald Reagan, a study came out called “A Nation at Risk.” The report was a “scathing appraisal of public education” according to an article by Sarah Garland in the Aug. 17, 2014, Christian Science Monitor article entitled, “US Education: How We Got Where We Are Today.”

A federal commission, made up officials from business, government and education, had studied U.S. schools and found they were not competitive with the U.S.’s current rival at that time, Japan. SAT and standardized test scores were dropping. American students were not competitive on the world market.  Something had to be done. “Twenty-three million Americans were functionally illiterate.” Worse still, American and their schools were complacent and crumbling, “threatening the very fabric of society.”

This report sent off a shock wave across the nation, according to Garland, that is still being felt today. Schools are still in sitting in the corners with dunce caps and many of the principles from “A Nation at Risk” are now engrained in American education.

The “Nation at Risk” report had five legs now found in the controversial Common Core Standards. These standards were meant to solve the problems in education. They are found today in 41 states: “improving content, raising standards, overhauling the teaching profession, adding time to the school day and year, and improving leadership and fiscal support,” according to Garland.

The Republican George W. Bush administration and a Republican Congress passed “No Child Left Behind,” which helped institute standardized testing across the nation. It also created the stigma of “failed schools” which we in Washington state and elsewhere are dealing with now under Democratic President Barack Obama who instituted “Race to the Top” and allowed for waivers to give time to the states to conform to NCLB.

Washington state recently rejected being forced to have its teachers evaluated by these standardized tests and the state lost $40 million in federal funding. Approximately 80 percent of its schools are now “failing” and are required to send letters to parents notifying them of their status.

There are a number of ironies that scream at me from this twisted educational history: Republicans complain that government is too big, yet it was Republicans who unconstitutionally encroached upon the role of the states over education.

A Democratic president elected with the aid of unions is now punishing union members in Washington state for refusing to obey NCLB, a program enacted by a Republican president. Meanwhile, the nation that spawned “A Nation at Risk,” Japan, has been in the economic doldrums for more than 20 years.

This is all a little mind numbing. Politics and logic seem to be mutually exclusive terms, especially when it comes to public education.