The Way Federalism Should Work

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In the middle of the wars in Afghanistan and Iraq, the crisis in Haiti, and the healthcare reform effort, education has not gotten as much press coverage as it perhaps should have.  In fact, one of the signature education programs of the current administration is about to start to take effect.  Known as Race to the Top, this grant program tucked into the stimulus package would, according to USA Today, favor the charter school idea of education reform while tying salaries to student test scores.  In contrast to the healthcare effort, it is not surprising that there has been very little coverage of this program; it is neither very expensive nor very controversial.  While many school districts have not signed onto proposals for the grant money, and several states including Texas are not submitting a bid for grant money, the program enjoys wide support according to the New York Times, and the first round of money is going out this week.

Far too often, we are presented with legislation that costs an extreme amount of money and are very controversial for whatever reason, not to mention with questionable effectiveness.  The Race to the Top grant program is noteworthy primarily because of its size, or rather its lack of financial heft.  According to the USA Today article linked above, the total amount of money allocated for the program is $4.35 billion.  Compare that to the various healthcare proposals we have seen at one point; the cheapest prices among them were over $700 billion.  Granted, education reform is not even close to the same scope as healthcare reform, but the gap between the programs’ costs is notable.

Even more interesting, however, is a peculiar thing that the New York Times article points out.  Normally, the government pays first and expects results later, but this time, it seems the normal paradigm has been reversed.  According to the Times, the prospect of receiving millions of Federal dollars has encouraged several states to implement changes sought by Education Secretary Arne Duncan and President Obama in establishing this grant fund.  This is all without spending a dime of the grant money.  What could have caused such a fundamental shift?

The answer, quite simply, is the recession.  Just like ordinary Americans, the recession has hit state budgets hard, and according to USA Today, some of the stimulus money that has gone to states has been spent on things other than its intended purpose.  Thus, it is heartening that there is a new focus on ensuring the money in the Race to the Top grants goes to help student achievement.  To see that several states are already paving the way for more changes to the way things are done in education in order to increase their chance at a piece of the pie is even more encouraging.  The federal government does not have to spend billions of dollars to achieve some results, and the states should be encouraged to make changes on their own.

This sort of reversal is not entirely without precedent.  In fact, it used to almost be a normal part of the way the states and the federal government interacted with each other, especially in cases where the item in question is technically under the states’ purview.  However, the more memorable form of this relationship is when the change is brought about through the threat of less money.  For instance, when the federal government wanted the drinking age raised to 21, they “encouraged” the states to make this change by threatening to withhold federal highway money.  With Race to the Top, it will be interesting to see how many of the reforms last versus how many of the states are just doing it to get more money.  However, it is certainly a good idea, and has proven that the paradigm of “spend first, reform later” is not unshakable.  Indeed, the reaction of the states to the Race to the Top grant is refreshing in this political climate, and I for one would like to see it happen again with other programs.

The The Way Federalism Should Work by The New Age of Politics, unless otherwise expressly stated, is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 3.0 Unported License.

Tags: Arne Duncan, Charter school, Department of Education, Education, Education reform, federalism, grants, Politics, Race to the Top, reform, relationship between federal government and states