The Charter State Option: Charting a Course toward Federalism in Education. Backgrounder No. 1987

Heritage Foundation. 214 Massachusetts Avenue NE, Washington, DC 20002-4999. Tel: 202-546-4400; Fax: 202-546-8328; e-mail: info@heritage.org; Web site: http://www.heritage.org

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9

Federalism; Elementary Secondary Education; Federal Legislation; Change Strategies; National Standards; School Restructuring; Charter Schools; Educational Policy; Policy Analysis; Educational Development; Educational Assessment; Educational Indicators

Across the United States, nearly 50 million students are served by 96,000 public schools. Federal policymakers cannot be expected to diagnose the diverse learning needs of these students and to craft solutions adequate to meet all of them. Four decades, eight reauthorizations of the Elementary and Secondary Education Act, and expenditure of billions of federal dollars have not succeeded in improving student achievement. The authors advocate that Congress should seek to restore federalism in education governance in order to encourage state and local leadership that is more directly accountable to parents and taxpayers, by enacting a charter state option. Congress should allow all states to enter into an alternative contractual arrangement with the federal government in which they would be freed from federal program mandates while taking responsibility for results. Such federalism would create an environment in which promising state and local education strategies can flourish. (Contains 24 footnotes and 2 charts.)

ERIC

2007

ED498014