Federal Role in Education

Looking at Legislation

The founders of the American republic emphasized the importance of an educated citizenry. With a Kantian bent towards saving the general public from their “crude state of nature,” many of America's first leaders believed that education was paramount to the success of the new republic. Leaders such as Thomas Jefferson, Alexander Hamilton, and James Madison espoused what they believed to be a direct correlation between education and the economic development of the country. Madison himself, during the 1787 Constitutional Convention, supported the creation of a national university; however, the remaining delegates were fearful of a central government possessing too much control over the nation's educational offerings. This same concern precluded the mention of education during the framing of the Constitution. The founders settled for a dual federalism in which powers would be divided between the states and federal government, leaving education primarily a state concern. Madison and other similar thinkers were desirous of a clear delineation between federal and state powers. The founders sought a separation that would respect the fact that state and federal agencies were designed for different purposes.

The early avoidance of a strong federal government set the tone for an American educational system that granted states and local education agencies primary control over their educational systems. Even so, public education has never entirely become a state or local matter. Early in the country's history, the federal government asserted its interest in education by enacting a series of policies granting land to territories and states for educational purposes. The Land Ordinance of 1785, for example, helped facilitate the westward movement of settlers by enticing families with the promise that public schools would be provided for every township they encountered. The subsequent Land Ordinance of 1787, known as the Northwest Ordinance, flexed the federal government's might by mandating that any territory wanting to become a state had to have an education provision in its basic law.

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