Bring Education Back Home

There’s been a lot of debate lately about President Trump’s proposal to dismantle the U.S. Department of Education. His argument is fairly simple: since the department was established in the 1970s, education outcomes in this country haven’t improved—despite the ever-growing size and scope of federal oversight. He believes that education should be handled entirely at the state level, and while I agree that’s a step in the right direction, I don’t think it goes far enough.

In my view, even state departments of education have grown far too powerful, placing too much distance between decision-makers and the children whose futures their policies effect.

Locally elected school boards—not bureaucrats in Nashville or Washington—should be making the decisions that affect our schools. These are the people we know. We see them at ballgames, in church pews, and at the grocery store. They are far more accountable to the community than officials in state offices who don’t know our children and certainly weren’t elected by our voters.

What’s even more frustrating is the way the money works. We pay our taxes here at home, but a big chunk of that money goes off to the state. Then, the state turns around and “gives” some of it back to us—only if we play by their rules. Our local schools have to jump through a bunch of hoops to qualify for funding that should’ve just stayed in our community in the first place. Instead of trusting us to do what’s right for our kids, the state ties that money to a long list of requirements—testing, curriculum rules, and all kinds of red tape that often feel more about checking boxes than actually helping students learn.

Accountability is important—but control is something else entirely.

Our schools should be run by the people who know our kids, our communities, and our values. That means our school boards, the administrators they hire, and the teachers in the classrooms. We don’t need outside experts with big ideas who never face the families they impact.

In our home, we choose to homeschool. We believe that in many cases, the home is the best place to educate a child. But whether a child is taught around the kitchen table or in a public classroom, one principle remains true: the closer education is to the home, the better off we are. The further away the decision-makers get—from our neighborhoods, our families, and our shared values—the worse the outcomes tend to be.

It’s time to bring education back home.