pols lecture 33

• Education policy in the U.S. is characterized by a continuing debate between common, shared national standards and state flexibility, traditional policy domains, and states' rights
• The federal government's power in education, health, and other areas comes from the interstate commerce clause and the taxing and spending power
• Police power


  The broad power of states to make laws for the general welfare of their communities
• The 10th Amendment clarifies that certain powers are reserved to the states or the people
• Education is also a matter of national interest and import


  Narrowly: international competitiveness, "soft power", etc.

  Broadly: link between education and a free society
• Potential roles of public schools

  • Acquiring general life skills
  • Gaining civic and critical capacities
  • Accepting authority
  • Becoming an economic contributor
• Education is primarily a state and local responsibility in the United States
• Role of states in education

  • Establishing schools and colleges
  • Developing curricula
  • Determining enrollment and graduation requirements
  • Sharing responsibility for funding
• The result is great variation at state and local levels in both inputs (teacher salaries, qualifications, funding, curricula) and outputs (dropout and graduation rates, standardized test scores, college readiness)
• Northwest Ordinance (1787)


  Land to new states for public schools
• U.S. Office of Education (est. 1867)


  Becomes U.S. Department of Education (1979)
• Early federal grants-in-aid


  • Smith-Hughes Act (1917): Vocational education for agriculture
• Trends in federalism and education policy

  • Cooperative federalism (national school lunch & milk program)
  • Centralized federalism (categorical grants to schools)
  • New federalism (block grants)
• No Child Left Behind (NCLB), 2001


  Standards-based revision of the ESEA that required standardized testing to assess school performance. Controversial, critiqued as an unfunded mandate.
• Common Core State Standards (est. 2009)

  National core of learning objectives with focus on English and math. State adoption encouraged via grants-in-aid
• Every Student Succeeds Act (ESSA), 2015

  Obama-era revision where states create own standards
• Common objections to federal involvement in education

  • One-size-fits-all policy
  • Too much federal encroachment
  • Expense, difficulty of implementation and monitoring
  • Who funds it? Who has oversight?
• Assessing the quality of K-12 public education systems is a frequent objective
• Issues in public education

  • How much and how fairly do states fund?
  • How many graduates and dropouts result?
  • Standardized testing as a measure of learning and progress
  • Pros and cons of traditional and alternative schooling models (e.g. charter schools, magnet schools)
  • Performance-based funding: Schools with higher marks get more
  • Vouchers: Parents receive their student's "share" of public ed. funding, and may spend it at private schools
• Establishing public schools and funding these schools is mandated by the Texas Constitution of 1876
• Language in state constitutions regarding education

  • Education as a democratic imperative (18 states)
  • References to educational opportunity (8 states)
  • Descriptors of schools include "thorough," "uniform," "general"
• Independent School Districts (ISDs)

  Schools often organized into school districts, with a Board of Trustees (or School Board) as the governing body
• Texas Board of Education

  15 members, 4-year elected terms, elected in "education districts" drawn by Legislature. Oversees Permanent School Fund, executes education budget, nominates Commissioner of Education, purchases textbooks and shapes their content, sets standards for students and schools
• Segregation was written into the Texas Constitution, and Black schools had fewer school days and 1/3 less funding
• Brown v. Board of Education (1954) ended de jure segregation, but de facto segregation persisted due to housing patterns and discriminatory housing policies
• Equality of funding across "poor" and "rich" districts is a long-standing major issue in Texas, with districts suing the state 7 times since the early 1980s

  Key issue: poor districts do not receive enough funds to deliver equal quality education as well-off districts
• In Texas, school districts are the primary user of property taxes, which creates problems of equity in school funding between property-wealthy and property-poor districts
• San Antonio ISD v. Rodriguez (1973)

  The U.S. Supreme Court upheld Texas' school finance system, ruling it was not a violation of the 14th Amendment's equal protection clause
• Edgewood ISD v. Kirby (1989)


  The Texas Supreme Court ruled that the existing funding system violated the Texas Constitution's equal protection and efficient systems clauses
• Wealth-sharing or "Robin Hood" system


  Requires wealthier "Chapter 41" districts to transfer funding to poorer "Chapter 42" districts
• The Texas Supreme Court has criticized the wealth-sharing system as "byzantine" but has upheld it
• Increases to education funding over inflation are rare in Texas, and increases to keep up with inflation and population growth might not happen either
• The 2019 Texas legislative session marked a renewed commitment to school finance, while the 2021 session had to address new issues like COVID "learning loss" and funding virtual learning
• The 88th Texas Legislature included several education bills, including a teacher pay raise, and a big fight over vouchers that is still ongoing
• Who has the police power?


  States, not the federal government
• What type of purpose gov't are school districts? (general/special)

  Special purpose gov't
• What model do school boards provide for?


  Council-manager form.

  Board approves budget, sets tax rate & arranges financial audits.

  Board hires a superintendent who manages day-to-day operations & implements board policies.
• State Boards of Education regulate school districts via:

  • Financial controls over allocated funds
  • Bureaucratic oversight & monitoring
• Board of Trustees

  • In TX, members (generally 7) are elected in nonpartisan elections
  • Lengths of term vary; elected at-large or from districts
• Education policy was left to local school districts until the 1940s

  Key issues shaping state policy

  1.Desegregation

  2. Equity in public school funding

  3. Search for educational excellence