Federal bureaucracies should not control our schools

Wisdom of the week

[Reprinted from Issues & Views November 12, 2001]

We continue to be saddened that so many are seemingly unaware of the denial of our freedoms by the federal judiciary and federal bureaucracies in the control and running of our nation's school districts. The continued trust of minorities in an entity which has ordered their children's school assignment by race and national origin, which has stripped districts of funds needed for education, and in some instances has deprived them of representation by those they have elected, is baffling and frightening. Obviously many Americans are fooled by the media labels of the practice such as "desegregation" and "equal opportunity." In reality the practice is neither, and most often causes the opposite of what the practice pretends to accomplish.

That American citizens have not demanded that Congress check the courts and have not demanded that state governments forbid racial and ethnic assignment, hangs as a dark cloud over our nation--one that threatens the future of public education along with the escalating use of public schools for purposes of societal indoctrination. Often even those most interested in the unfortunate uses of our public schools (OBE, School-to-Work, dumbing down, rewriting history, etc.) have neglected to connect the dots.

We remind all that this matter is one of urgency. It is a classic example of the usurpation of authority by the federal judiciary. It involves our children--what they are taught, how they are taught, and where they are taught. It involves the future of race relations in our nation. We can never be "one nation, under God, with freedom and justice for all" so long as we allow our citizens to be manipulated by race and national origin or socioeconomic status.

Additionally, the increasing federal role in education is frightening--not comforting; and constitutionally the federal government has no role in education. That role cannot be trusted. Parents who have been able to escape public education for their children must awaken to the fact that their escape does not relieve them of the responsibility to demand correction and an end to the practices which do ruin to our nation. Neither we nor our children will escape the consequences.

-- Joyce Haws, in an editorial for the newsletter of the National Association for Neighborhood Schools, Fall 2001. For more information on the struggle to control public schools, visit the NANS website. Inquire about membership in NANS to receive the organization's informative hard copy newsletter (e-mail: RHaws@aol.com).

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