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Return education to the states

Vance at Begging to Differ offers up a post about education.

I was completely shocked to discover the massive increases in federal government spending on education. The Department of Education is forecast to spend $62.8 billion in 2004. (OMB webpage about Dept. of Education)

In the comments left in my recent post about Rudy Giuliani, someone asked what I consider to be a real Republican. A real Republican believes in a limited role for the federal government, which means leaving to the states those government functions that have traditionally been left to the states. Such as education. Ronald Reagan was a real republican who came to Washington to reduce federal spending. The current administration is Republican in name only; it is not interested in reducing the size of federal government.

I disagree with some of Vance’s specific points. For example, he seems to think very highly of the Head Start program, yet from what I’ve read the Head Start program hasn’t been shown to have any long term impact on the children who participate in it.

But Vance’s general argument, that our federal government should not be involved with education, I’m in complete agreement with.

posted Saturday, June 12, 2004