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the 1980 presidential campaign, Ronald Reagan dubbed the fledgling
Department of Education "President
Carter's new bureaucratic boondoggle." Two decades and billions
of dollars later, Reagan's assessment holds true.
Under the department's watch, the American education system has
continued to slouch toward utter failure. Test scores show that
one out of three fourth graders can't read. A significant achievement
gap between the races still exists. Meanwhile, a recent audit of
the department's records found that nearly a half billion dollars
of taxpayer funds intended to support education were either stolen
or "missing."
Yet a Republican president will soon sign a bill passed by a Republican
Congress that increases spending on that bureaucratic boondoggle
by more than ten percent. Unable to pass the only valuable components
of his education package, such as parental choice and program consolidation,
President Bush is settling for a bill crafted by Teddy Kennedy that
arms federal bureaucrats with a national test and billions in new
spending.
Conservatives need to consider the ominous prospects of expanding
federal power over education. Federal funds for character education
may sound fine now, but imagine what that might mean under, say,
a "Hillary" administration. Before trading a vast expansion of federal
authority for a bipartisan photo-op, the new administration should
take a lesson from President Reagan.
While politics prevented Reagan from delivering on his promise to
abolish the Department of Education, he at least slowed the growth
of the federal agency to 5 percent annually throughout his administration.
More important, Reagan understood the proper role of the federal
government in education: "Education is the principal responsibility
of local school systems, teachers, parents, citizen boards, and
state governments." Adhering to this principle, Reagan sought policies
that "insure that local needs and preferences, rather than the wishes
of Washington, determine the education of our children."
While focus group politics have frightened President Bush away from
even mentioning the words "abolish" and "education" in the same
sentence, the new administration has an opportunity to enact a positive
federal program that empowers parents and lets the states call the
shots on new spending. Again, the answer lies in Reagan's playbook.
Throughout his administration, President Reagan called for an education
tax credit that allowed parents to subtract a portion of their child's
private-school tuition payment from their tax bill. While his package
died in Congress, the idea is back. Conservative lawmakers across
the country have taken Reagan's tax credit and polished it into
a political winner: tax credits for donations to organizations that
give scholarships to poor children to attend private schools. A
$500 tax credit in Arizona raised $14 million for scholarships last
year. Legislators in Florida and Pennsylvania passed similar programs
this spring.
Now, lawmakers on Capitol Hill are considering education tax credits.
Rep. Pete Hoekstra (R., Mich.) recently introduced a scholarship
tax-credit bill in the House that provides a partial tax credit
for donations for up to $500 for individuals, and $100,000 for corporations.
Similar education tax credits, including a dollar-for-dollar credit,
have been introduced by other members of Congress.
The potential impact of these programs is enormous. A recently published
fiscal analysis by the Cato Institute found that a national scholarship
tax credit could potentially raise nearly $6 billion per year —
enough to give $2000 scholarships to nearly 3 million low-income
children.
Along with aiding millions of families, the scholarship tax credit
promises to achieve another one of Reagan's primary goals: returning
federal power over education to the people. Since many of the scholarship
recipients would be from public schools, state and local governments
would reap significant savings — roughly $12 billion, according
to Cato's estimates, as students switch from public to private schools.
State coffers will swell with surpluses — dollars that can
be used for tax cuts, new education programs, or however voters
see fit.
But more important than the fiscal savings, this small federal program
could spark additional reform initiatives that would empower parents
across the country.
The fifty million school children across the country deserve more
than new spending and a national test from the president who pledged
education as his top priority. Instead of dumping more money into
Jimmy Carter's bureaucratic boondoggle, President Bush should get
behind the scholarship tax credit. In the process, the new president
could empower millions of parents with school choice, return federal
power to the people, and, finally, deliver a long overdue win for
the Gipper.
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