The Sovereignty of Education in America

The United States of America is a country which is defined greatly by the things that make American citizens different from each other, while still maintaining tremendous sameness as well. This almost irreconcilable hypocrisy, the end result of the federal system has resulted in the US becoming the most powerful nation in the world and the longest standing democratic-republic in the modern world.

When The USA was starting out as a country there was a large debate whether the denyonmym was to be The United States or These United States. More often than not the plural version was the one most likely to be known throughout the world. The was mainly because the goal was to be a union of independent states that make up a nation, but not one individual nation-state. This really began to change during the civil war, as a result of the feeling of empowerment of states which caused them to rebel. After the Civil War much of state sovereignty had been eroded, however states continue to hold on to whatever bit of their sovereignty that they can.

This in mind it is clear that Education has long since been a part of state sovereignty. There is a reason for this. Education creates the tools for the next generation, and the needs of the future generations in different states can and should be different. Some states may be more agricultural and more focus should be placed on agricultural and environmental literacy. Other states may be more multi-ethnic and have a large global dynamic, thereby making international and world studies more necessary. This argument for states’ rights in education certainly holds true with the original attitudes of the founders that states should have control over the powers not directly delegated to the federal government.

Certainly there is something to be said about uniformity throughout the nation. There certainly would be advantages, such as people anywhere in the country being on the same page, and being able to make the same references and threshold of understanding as anybody else in the US, creating more similarities between people. Though valid, from a constitutional standpoint and from a federalist standpoint that is not what this nation is about. The founding of this nation holds a strong focus on being able to have independent states within a common union created for common defense and economic well-being. Given that the task of education is not given to the federal government it is left to the states thereby constitutionally speaking this issue should be left to the states. Additionally the potential recourse of a national education system can be a federal level politically based and partisan system which can influence national education for political means and override the sovereignty of the states.
Ultimately while a national education system can have positive attributes, it does not recognize the needs of the localities and the states, and creates a potential ground for overriding of state power and creation of partisan political education. Therefore it is clear that the best way to maintain state sovereignty is to develop and more strongly maintain, state level controls as opposed to national level controls over education.