Federalism- Cheyenne Karst

The division of power between state and federal governments which allows states to handle local
affairs without federal intervention and federal governments to handle issues related to the
country as a whole.

Within the constitution itself, there is no actual mention of the concept of federalism. This idea
was added with the ratification of the bill of rights. Federalism was especially important early on
in United States history, as this was one of the methods of preventing the United States
government from becoming too strong. To do this, federalism separates the powers of the federal
and state governments, giving each their own individual responsibilities. This protects American
citizens by preventing the federal government from becoming too strong, and the states
governments by ensuring that they are provided with the right to decide anything not specified to
the federal government within the constitution.

It is stated within the tenth amendment of the Bill of Rights that “powers not delegated… by the
constitution… are reserved to the states… or to the people.” In essence, this is giving power to
the states, or the people of those states, to handle anything that is not strictly outlined to the
federal government by the United States Constitution. This prevents the federal government from
attempting to control each and every happening within the nation.

Government in the United States has always been concerned with the education of the children
within the country, with the first education laws predating the American Revolution by more than
one hundred years. That being said, nowhere in the Constitution does it say that the federal
government can have any sort of control over education within the states. Though they do not
have the ability to officially create laws concerning education, there are way that the federal
government can circumvent this rule. One method of doing this is by providing states with grants
if they comply with requested actions. One example of this is the Elementary and Secondary
Education Act (ESEA), signed into order by president Lyndon B. Johnson. Originally, the ESEA
was used to provide funding to schools in high poverty areas. Over the years, this act has been
transformed, increasing the government’s control over state education. Under the command of
president George W. Bush, the act was transformed into the No Child Left Behind Act (NCLB).
Under this new reform, states had to bring all student to a “proficient” level in reading and math
before 2014. If this was not accomplished, schools would lose their funding provided by the
ESEA. Though this was federally mandated, due to federalism the national government could not
set the standards for what “proficient” actually was. This was left to each individual state. By
allowing the states to set their own standards, the federal government was not, in fact, infringing
upon the state’s rights to govern education. In addition to this, the act could not be classified as a
law. The only method to get states to conform to the requirements was to provide finding for
those who did. In doing this, states were still seemingly the ones being allowed to make the
decisions. It can be argued though, that this violates the principals of federalism. By punishing
states that are not able to meet standards, it creates a ere of necessity in following the act’s
requirements.