On States’ Rights and Practical Reality

          As an urban planner, I've always held the position that if a planning report sits on a shelf it’s a failure. For me, a plan is a working document that earns its way through practical action. Implementation is the only game in town as far as planning is concerned. Plans that result in real world improvements are what make a city work, not pretty maps or colorful graphic images. All my professional life I've had an implementation-orientation rather than being influenced by soaring academic daydreams that look great on a paper but don’t work in real life, like the miserable failures that are Chandigarh, Ciudad Guayana, and Brasília, all of which were designed by world famous planners and architects.

          That background has led me to look at states’ rights from the view point of practical reality, which for me is actual, on the ground consequences. That means I’m interested in finding a topic that is a real world, multi-decade example of state stewardship of public health, education, and welfare. The topic I’ve identified is of concern to all fifty states and their citizens: public education.

          Although the enforcement of federal educational statutes may impose financial burdens on states, such as the Disabilities in Education Act (IDEA), No Child Left Behind Act, the Equal Education Opportunities Act and others, all states (with the exception of wacko California) fund and manage education locally through property taxes and school districts. Despite the vociferous criticisms of conservatives that have been leveled at the U.S. Department of Education, we do not have a nationally controlled education system. As of 2011, a little over seven percent of all funds generated for public education in the U.S. come from the U.S. Department of Education and not quite three percent more from other federal agencies. So, approximately 90 percent of all educational funding comes from state and local sources.

          Many conservatives claim that empowering state and local government leaders to solve their own problems often leads to better policies and operations. States’ rights. They believe locally elected leaders are closer to the people affected by their decisions and are much more likely to understand the nuances of their community's particular challenges and to respond appropriately in addressing their needs. As South Carolina Republican Senator Jim DeMint’s web site puts it, “Local solutions are needed for local shortcomings, and when Washington recognizes that local communities, parents, and schools know what’s best for their children we will finally be on the trajectory for national success in education.” I’m scratching my head here because, correct me if I’m wrong, isn’t every school district in the country locally controlled and has been that way forever?

          So, exactly how well have states done with their public education responsibilities? Although many conservatives would rather deal with truthy factoids that mirror their ideological mindset, let’s take a look at some recent, objective metrics gathered by people outside the U.S. The Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development (the OECD is a forum of developed countries committed to democracy and the market economy) Programme for International Student Assessment (PISA) report, which compares the knowledge and skills of 15-year-olds in 70 countries around the world, ranked the United States 14th out of 34 OECD countries for reading skills, 17th for science, and a way below-average 25th for mathematics. Now there’s a wonderful performance we should all be proud of, especially the people advocating states’ rights.

          But, to demonstrate the latest results weren’t a fluke, let’s look at the 2003 PISA Report. I won’t bore you with all the pithy details but below I’ve provided four tables from that Report comparing the U.S. to Germany, France, Sweden, Australia, and Canada in mathematics, science, problem solving, and reading. The column of numbers indicates each nation’s mean score; the country at the top of the column has the lowest score. Australia is highlighted because it too is a nation of relatively recent immigrants, as is Canada. Note that with the exception of reading, the U.S. places last and below average. And in reading we occupied second last place and were only a point above average, so we didn’t cover ourselves in glory in that category either. Another stellar educational performance.

           

Mathematics 2003

United States	482.89
OECD Average	500.00
Germany	502.99
Sweden	509.05
France	510.80
Australia	524.27
Canada	532.49

Science 2003

United States	491.26
OECD Average	499.61
Germany	502.34
Sweden	506.12
France	511.23
Canada	518.75
Australia	525.05

Problem Solving

United States	477.34
OECD Average	499.99
Sweden	508.57
Germany	513.43
France	519.16
Canada	529.32
Australia	529.85

Reading 2003

Germany	491.36
OECD Average	494.20
United States	495.18
France	496.19
Sweden	514.27
Australia	525.43
Canada	527.91

          Alert readers may have noted the scores of Australia and Canada in the tables with respect to those of the U.S. As an aside, in both of those countries, Germany, and Sweden the public educational system is controlled by provinces/states and local school districts, much like ours; only the French system is nationally-controlled.

          What real world conclusions can be drawn from the above information? First, the collective fifty states have an execrable record of guiding public education. Political ideology is not part of that criticism since state governments have been and will continue to be controlled by either party, a situation that switches regularly almost every four years. In practical terms, the states have abjectly failed their citizens in ways that adversely affect the present and the future. What we see is a horrific and willful state government failure to protect their citizens from harm, in this case economic harm since a piss poor education can affect your entire life as well as your earnings potential and your ability to be prepared to compete on every stage imaginable: local, regional, national, and international.

          Second, the states’ intentional failures to improve public education prove it ranks far down the totem pole of importance, not in terms of funding but in oversight and leadership. The only rational conclusion is that states as a whole care little about advancing public education. Just look at the glaring inequities over the way states fund public education: property taxes. If you live in an affluent area the public schools are typically well funded and the teachers well paid. If you live in a poor, inner-city neighborhood or a rural area, chances are your school is not well funded or equipped and your teachers make a lot less than their counterparts in the affluent school districts. That’s the result of intentional state policies and regulations.

          The exercise of states’ rights in public education in practical reality for those on the receiving end means it is state policy for them to be uneducated and stupid. If you do not believe that statement, please refer to the above PISA scores, where the U.S. places below average in the far greater majority of the measures. And why should we be surprised at that real world result? States have every right to neglect public education and ignore the welfare of their citizens and have done exactly that for many decades, until our students are testing dumb and dumber with respect to their peers in other countries. Just like it was every states’ right to treat black Americans like shit and all too many Southern and border states did so for decades until federal civil and voting rights and inter-state commerce acts were passed and things finally started to change.

          If we elect people who support Tea Party solutions we are headed back in time to those wonderful days when states got to enforce or not enforce laws as they wished, including anti-pollution, food and drug quality, civil rights, voting rights, as well as set public education standards. We’ll be back to the glory days of the 1880s and 1890s when separate but unequal was federal and state law. That’s the practical reality of states’ rights. If that is what you want, vote for Tea Party candidates, because once they are in power, that’s exactly what we’ll get. If you do not believe that statement, how do you explain what is happening in Congress with the earlier and continuing fiscal crisis?