(Posted every September since 2005.)
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This is wrong on so many levels:
The Education Department outlined Tuesday how it plans to enforce a little-known provision that Congress passed in 2004: Every school and college that receives federal money must teach about the Constitution on Sept. 17, the day the document was adopted in 1787.
Schools can determine what kind of educational program they want, but they must hold one every year on the now-named “Constitution Day and Citizenship Day.” And if Sept. 17 falls on a weekend or holiday, schools must schedule a program immediately before or after that date.
Historically, the federal government has avoided dictating what or when anything must be taught because those powers rest with the states under the 10th Amendment. The Education Department’s Web site even underlines that point, saying matters such as the development of curricula and the setting of course requirements fall outside federal authority.
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The federal law championed by Byrd also affects all federal agencies. They will have to train new employees about the Constitution during orientation and train all employees about the document every Sept. 17. The Office of Personnel Management is expected to post guidelines in those areas soon.
Some hasty stitches:
–We are talking here about a intrusive federal law mandating that states introduce a specific curriculum extolling the virtues of Tenth Amendment federalism. Does no one see the irony in that?!?
–On the other hand, there’s actually nothing in the Tenth Amendment or its jurisprudence declaring education as a “power reserved to the states.” That’s a convenient overlay that has been repeatedly paid lip service, but little else. No Child Left Behind was merely the last nail in the coffin burying the fiction of “leave the schools to the states.”
–As for that “all federal agencies” provision, I’d be just as happy, if not more so, if federal employees actually did their jobs on September 17 rather than watched prepackaged videos about separation of powers or federalism. This is just another paid holiday for them.
–What if, as part of “Constitution Day,” classrooms had debates about the Federal Marriage Amendment, or Roe v. Wade, or the constitutionality of capital punishment for crimes committed as minors, or of compulsory drug testing for high school students? I suspect a Bush Department of Education might have second thoughts about that kind of “Constitution Day.”
–Two words: Activist Legislature. Okay, some more words: The Politics of the Warm Fuzzy Feeling.
–What’s so important about when the Constitution was adopted? Isn’t when it was ratified (March 4, 1789) far more symbolic?
Class dismissed.
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I found it mildly intriguing that the White issued no Constitution Day proclamation this year, as it has done in years past. Relevant? The proclamation was issued late today (which is unusual — such announcements are usually issued a week or so in advance).