After the establishment of the Department of Education in 1979 under President Carter’s administration the Federal government has attempted to centralize all decisions related to teaching of American children. This has led to a rapid decline in the quality of education and the state level departments of Education in the 50 States have very little say in the quality of teachers or the course materials that are adopted in the schools throughout America.
This means that test scores have not improved since 1979 and American children lack even fundamental math, science and reading skills to compete in the globalized world. For instance China is rapidly improving its education system and the Chinese kids receive intense training in math and science, and inculcated with immense pride in the history, culture and civilization despite the horrors of slavery, serfdom, wars and imperialism inherent in its history.
On the other hand American kids are not getting good textbooks and intense training in math and science with strict parameters to measure their performance. The recent fraud uncovered in Atlanta school system to embellish the grades and scores of children to receive more federal money for better performance does not bode well for the future of America.
The Federal Department of Education is spending more than a $100 Billion in education with little to show for children’s progress. Decentralization of power and wealth from the hands of federal department of education to the 13,000 local school districts in America will bring decision making closer to parents so that families and local school authorities can decide how intense math, science and reading courses should be and what textbooks children should use.