Now, the reason I find this so interesting is because although every election cycle Americans are subjected to the same debate concerning education, the actual involvement is almost minuscule. Of course, this doesn't mean that the federal government doesn't play a role in other ways - obviously, schools are forced to comply with certain laws and standards mandated from up top. But at the same time, the constant cry that the feds are taking over education is way overblown. Although federal involvement has increased dramatically, state and local involvement has increased as well, causing the percentage to rise but not very fast.
Although I could spill out information on a host a different issues regarding federal involvement in education, I thought I'd keep this post short and to the point. To sum it up:
Federal involvement in education has grown significantly since the 1960s, but it's still only at 10%. Why do you think so many people try to paint the picture as if the feds are taking some sort of enormous unprecedented role in education?
I was shocked when you said that only 10% of federal spending goes towards education. This number seems much lower than it should be. I was especially shocked because just today I came across another statistic about government spending having to do with my own junior theme topic. That is that about one-fourth of taxpayer's money goes towards federal corn subsidies alone. I would think that the government would spend much more on the education of our nation than on one commodity. I think that there is definitely a picture being painted here that there is much more government involvement in our educational systems than there really is. The main reason is probably because the government doesn't want people breathing down their backs about their children's educations. So instead, they create this illusion that there is so much more federal involvement in the education system today than there used to be, when in reality, it's still not very high.
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