Federalism and Education.

Essay by dammitlindsay12High School, 12th gradeA, November 2005

download word file, 3 pages 5.0

Recent situations have caused the public's eye to be drawn to politics and the states' interaction with the national government. These situations have not only shined light on federalism but have also brought out the real motives of the national government. Federalism has shown to be extremely successful only if the federal government limits its control to its own designated jurisdiction.

In the area of education, the national government plays a much larger role than needed. The 'No Child Left Behind Act' was designed by the national government to increase the quality of education throughout the whole country. In reality, the act creates m ore problems than it actually solves. The whole premise of the No Child Left Behind Act is to test children to see how they are progressing. The problem lies in the fact that teachers spend so much time testing the students that the curriculum does not get taught.

This leads to the students understanding of the curriculum going down which ultimately leads to the test scores going down. This therefore makes the whole act completely pointless because not only is it not helping the students but it is making the education system much less efficient. All decisions pertaining with education should be left up to the state because each state has its own unique situation. For example, due to Nevada's ever growing population, the classroom size needs to be much bigger than the average classroom size than a state like Montana.

When it comes to the roles of the state and national government in times of natural disaster, both parts need to play an equal part. The state needs to be able to help their people with moral and physical support but the national government has the obligation of providing financial support which is...