While in Des Moines, Iowa campaigning on Tuesday former U.S. Senator Rick Santorum (R-PA) made a few comments about the federal governments role in education. First after speaking as part of the Iowa Caucus Consortium Candidate Series Santorum held a press avail, and I was able to ask him a question about the work to reauthorize No Child Left Behind.
“If I had a do-over I would not have supported No Child Left Behind simply because I don’t think there has been any discernible improvement of educational quality in America now that the federal government has gotten involved in education. I am willing to do this radical experiment and let parents and teachers and local communities be back in charge of the education of their children because my guess is they care more about these children than the bureaucrats in Washington, DC and the revolution I called for in my book, Blue Collar Conservatives, is to put parents and the local communities back in charge of education. I think we are going to see, and again incorporating the families into that experience, we are going to see a lot stronger educational results as a result of that,” Santorum answered.
Santorum later yesterday spoke to the Polk County Republican Central Committee where he brought up the U.S. Department of Education answering a question about what he would do to reduce the size of government.
“One department that I would shrink is the Department of Education. We went from 2 percent of education spending when I came to Congress, the federal government was responsible for 2 percent of education spending, it’s now eleven. Does anyone think schools have gotten better over the last 20 years? We need to get rid of that spending, No Child Left Behind, Common Core, all of these things can be taken out of Washington, DC. Shrink the Department of Education and put the money back where it belongs to the states. In fact, get rid of the money and the states and local governments deal with it,” Santorum said.
“If I had a do-over I would not have supported No Child Left Behind simply because I don’t think there has been any discernible improvement of educational quality in America now that the federal government has gotten involved in education.”
Not because it’s completely unconstitutional from the get-go. And if there were a modicum of success with the NCLB program, no matter the cost, this guy would be at the front of the parade claiming credit.
It is pointless to ask entrenched politicians about their opinions.
An elementary knowledge of the enumerated powers granted to the federal government would require all representatives to immediately and consistently vote to totally refund and shut down the Department of Education.
For Senator/candidate Santorum to now shed crocodile tears over his wasteful votes is an insult to me because it tells me if the spending had been proven helpful he would have never criticized his unconstitutional votes. It should strip him of any serious consideration for the presidency.
A real statesman, which there are admittedly few, stands on his/her word to support and defend the Constitution.
Let us not forget that nearly 40% of the federal budget has to be borrowed or printed. This alone puts our posterity on the hook to repay. This illegal spending and debt load is like grade school student loan debt. But no, that’s not enough. When they seek a college level education they are allowed to go further in debt through that very same federal government. Did Senator Santorum also support the student “loan” program legislation?
What a horrible disservice to our youth!
…vote to totally defund and shut down…