HON. RON PAUL
OF TEXAS
IN THE HOUSE OF REPRESENTATIVES
Friday, October 16, 1998
1998 Ron Paul 121:1
Mr. PAUL.
Mr. Speaker, I appreciate the opportunity
to express my thoughts on the education
debate that has consumed much of this
Congress in recent days. For all the sound
and fury generated by the argument over education,
the truth is that the difference between
the congressional leadership and the administration
are not that significant; both wish to
strengthen the unconstitutional system of centralized
education. I trust I need not go into
the flaws with President Clinton’s
command-and-control approach to education. However,
this Congress has failed to present a true,
constitutional alternative to President Clinton’s
proposals to further nationalize education.
1998 Ron Paul 121:2
It is becoming increasingly clear that the experiment
in centralized control of education
has failed. Even data from the National Assessment
of Education Progress [NAEP]
shows that students in States where control
over education is decentralized score approximately
10 percentage points higher on
NAEP’s tests in math and reading than students
from States with highly-centralized education
systems. Clearly, the drafters of the
Constitution knew what they were doing when
they forbade the Federal Government from
meddling in education.
1998 Ron Paul 121:3
American children deserve nothing less than
the best educational opportunities, not
warmed-over versions of the disastrous educational
policies of the past. That is why I introduced
H.R. 1816, the Family Education
Freedom Act. This bill would give parents an
inflation-adjusted $3,000 per annum tax credit,
per child for educational expenses. The credit
applies to those in public, private, parochial, or
home schooling.
1998 Ron Paul 121:4
This bill is the largest tax credit for education
in the history of our great Republic and
it returns the fundamental principal of a truly
free economy to America’s education system:
what the great economist Ludwig von Mises
called “consumer sovereignty.” Consumer
sovereignty simply means consumers decide
who succeeds or fails in the market. Businesses
that best satisfy consumer demand will
be the most successful. Consumer sovereignty
is the means by which the free market maximizes
human happiness.
1998 Ron Paul 121:5
Currently, consumers are less than sovereign
in the education “market.” Funding decisions
are increasingly controlled by the Federal
Government. Because “he who pays the
piper calls the tune,” public, and even private
schools, are paying greater attention to the
dictates of Federal “educrats” while ignoring
the wishes of the parents to an ever-greater
degree. As such, the lack of consumer sovereignty
in education is destroying parental
control of education and replacing it with State
control. Restoring parental control is the key to
improving education.
1998 Ron Paul 121:6
Of course I applaud all efforts which move
in this direction. the Gingrich/Coverdell education
tax cut, The Granger/Dunn bill, and,
yes, President Clinton’s college tax credits are
good first steps in the direction I advocate. However, Congress must act boldly, we can ill
afford to waste another year without a revolutionary
change in our policy. I believe my bill
sparks this revolution and I am disappointed
that the leadership of this Congress chose to
ignore this fundamental reform and instead focused
on reauthorizing great society programs,
creating new Federal education programs
(such as those contained in the Reading
Excellence Act and the four new Federal
programs created by the Higher Education
Act), and promoting the pseudo-federalism of
block grants.
1998 Ron Paul 121:7
One area where this Congress was successful
in fighting for a constitutional education
policy was in resisting President Clinton’s
drive for national testing. I do wish to express
my support for the provisions banning the development
of national testing and thank Mr. GOODLING for his leadership in this struggle.
1998 Ron Paul 121:8
However, I wish this provision did no come at
the price of $1.1 billion in new Federal spending. In addition, I note that this Congress is
taking several steps toward creating a national
curriculum, particularly through the Reading
Excellence Act, which dictates teaching methodologies
to every classroom in the Nation
and creates a Federal definition of reading,
thus making compliance with Federal standards
the goal of education.
1998 Ron Paul 121:9
So, even when Congress resists one proposal
to further nationalize education, it supports
another form of nationalization. Some
Members will claim they are resisting nationalization
and even standing up for the 10th
amendment by fighting to spend billions of taxpayer
dollars on block grants. These Members
say that the expenditure levels do not matter,
it is the way the money that is spent which is
important. Contrary to the view of these well-meaning
but misguided members, the amount
of taxpayer dollars spent on Federal education
programs do matter.
1998 Ron Paul 121:10
First of all, the Federal Government lacks
constitutional authority to redistribute monies
between States and taxpayers for the purpose
of education, regardless of whether the monies
are redistributed through Federal programs
or through grants. There is no “block grant exception”
to the principles of federalism embodied
in the U.S. Constitution.
1998 Ron Paul 121:11
Furthermore, the Federal Government’s
power to treat State governments as their administrative
subordinates stems from an abuse
of Congress’ taxing-and-spending power. Submitting
to Federal control is the only way State
and local officials can recapture any part of
the monies of the Federal Government has illegitimately
taken from a State’s citizens. Of
course, this is also the only way State officials
can tax citizens of other States to support their
education programs. It is the rare official who
can afford not to bow to Federal dictates in
exchange for Federal funding!
1998 Ron Paul 121:12
As long as the Federal Government controls
education dollars, States and local schools will
obey Federal mandates; the core problem is
not that Federal monies are given with the inevitable
strings attached, the real problem is
the existence of Federal taxation and funding.
1998 Ron Paul 121:13
Since Federal spending is the root of Federal
control, by increasing Federal spending
this Congress is laying the groundwork for future
Congresses to fasten more and more
mandates on the States. Because State and
even local officials, not Federal bureaucrats,
will be carrying out these mandates, this system
could complete the transformation of the
State governments into mere agents of the
Federal Government.
1998 Ron Paul 121:14
Congress has used block grants to avoid
addressing philosophical and constitutional
questions of the role of the Federal and State
governments by means of adjustments in
management in the name of devolution. Devolution
is said to return to State’s rights by decentralizing
the management of Federal programs. This is a new 1990’s definition of the
original concept of federalism and is a poor
substitute for the original, constitutional definition
of federalism.
1998 Ron Paul 121:15
While it is true that lower levels of intervention
are not as bad as micro-management at
the Federal level, Congress’ constitutional and
moral responsibility is not to make the Federal
education bureaucracy “less bad.” Rather, we
must act now to put parents back in charge of
education and thus make American education
once again the envy of the world.
1998 Ron Paul 121:16
Hopefully the next Congress will be more
reverent toward their duty to the U.S. Constitution
and America’s children. The price of Congress’
failure to return to the Constitution in
the area of education will be paid by the next
generation of American children. In short, we
cannot afford to continue on the policy road
we have been going down. The cost of inaction
to our future generations is simply too
great.
Notes:
1998 Ron Paul Chapter 121
The text of this chapter was inserted in the section of CongressionalRecord entitled “Extensions of remarks” and was not spoken on the House floor.
1998 Ron Paul 121:1 between the congressional leadership and the administration probably should be capitalized:
between the Congressional leadership and the Administration.
1998 Ron Paul 121:2 highly-centralized probably should be unhyphenated: highly centralized.
1998 Ron Paul 121:7 and thank Mr. GOODLING for his leadership Here, Ron Paul thanks The Honorable William F. Goodling of Pennsylvania.
1998 Ron Paul 121:8 10th amendment probably should have been capitalized: 10th Amendment.
1998 Ron Paul 121:8 the amount of taxpayer dollars spent on Federal education programs do matter.
probably should have been
the amount of taxpayer dollars spent on Federal education programs does matter. since it is the amount and not the dollars that matters.
