This is the Cato Daily Podcast for Friday, September 21st, 2007. I'm Caleb Brown. The federal government has an ever increasing role in

regulating state-based education systems. And with NCLB up for reauthorization, what does the

Constitution have to say about the federal role

in American education?

Neil McCluskey answers that and other questions in his new book, Feds in the classroom,

how big government corrupts,ripples, and Compromises American Education.

The Constitution gives the legislature no role in education.

The federal government cannot pass laws that tell schools what

curriculum to use, what the calendar should be, anything like that. The only

area where the federal government can be involved and this is largely the judicial and the

executive branches is ensuring that local and state public schools do not

discriminate in the way they deliver education. So through the 14th Amendment it's okay for the federal

government to say you have to make sure that your school districts aren't

segregated and sure that happens. Outside of that the only other area that they can be involved in is something that is truly connected to providing for the national defense.

And that is really just Department of Defense schools.

So if we've deployed American citizens overseas and they can

bring their children with them, it's okay to provide them with schools. But beyond that, the

federal government has no authority over American education.

There are some people who living in states where education systems have been so controlled

by, say, teachers, unions, or... been so controlled by say teachers unions or other groups that they feel that it can't

get any worse that their system really is just the pits and that federal intervention to sort of

correct these problems can't possibly create problems that are worse than the

...