Federal nannies should quit meddling in our schools

U.S. Senate Democrats are at it again. They're trying to prescribe another one-size-fits-all remedy to what ails our public education system.

Here's a better idea: Let these decisions rest in the hands of those who actually run our local school systems — elected school board members and the senior administrators they hire.

The Senate is considering a successor to the No Child Left Behind legislation promoted heavily by former President George W. Bush. The law expired in 2007 and senators have bickered ever since — largely along party lines — over how, or whether, to reinstate federal guidelines.

U.S. Senate Education Committee Chairman Tom Harkin, D-Iowa, has authored a mind-numbing 1,150-page manifesto that mandates that states fine-tune their own reforms. But it would leave the final decision on that tinkering with the federal czar of formal schooling, U.S. Education Secretary Arne Duncan.

Stop already. No Child Left Behind featured enough misery created by our federal nannies. They should quit meddling in our schools.

The No Child Left Behind law required states to develop methods of assessing student performance in basic skills. Then it went off the rails because the federal government had to sign off on the states' assessment programs. The carrot dangling for states to do a plan was the federal money designated for education.

The more reasonable option is to let local school boards and administrators make these decisions without oversight by federal bureaucrats who know nothing about where we live or the conditions our schools face versus what others in the state and elsewhere are up against.

The needs of students in Clovis are not precisely the same as they are down the road in Portales; nor are they in House or Melrose or Muleshoe.

Democrats who control the U.S. Senate believe the federal government should approve educational requirements. Republicans who run the U.S. House of Representatives see it differently, believing local school district officials are more qualified to make these decisions.

House Republicans have it right.

The decisions affecting how our children should be taught are best made by those who live and work here. These critical decisions do not need to be handed over to faceless federal bureaucrats.

The debate over this renewal is set to commence next week on Capitol Hill. A vote on the federal proposal may occur by autumn, just as a new school year is about to begin in New Mexico.

A single size does not fit all school systems' needs. Let the locals make these critical educational decisions.

— Unsigned editorials are the opinion of the Clovis Media Inc. editorial board, which includes Publisher Ray Sullivan and Editor David Stevens.