Education:

Today's Republicans: Mitt Romney: I've taken a position where, once upon a time, I said I wanted to eliminate the Department of Education. That was my position when I ran for Senate in 1994. That's very popular with the base. As I've been a governor and seen the impact that the federal government can have holding down the interest of the teachers' unions and instead putting the interests of the kids and the parents and the teachers first, I see that the Department of Education can actually make a difference. i Newt Gingrich: As leader of the 1994 Republican Revolution, Newt Gingrich and his fellow Republicans proposed to eliminate the federal Department of Education in their first post-election budget. ii Nearly a decade later, the former House Speaker backed President Bush's No Child Left Behind law, which effectively doubled the size of the Department of Education. iii While in Congress, Speaker Gingrich also co-sponsored a resolution for a school prayer amendment.iv Rick Santorum: The federal role in education is very limited. Education is the responsibility of parents, local schools (public and private), and states in that order. The President can and should inspire toward educational excellence and personalization of learning. The federal governments role is limited to areas such as supporting civil rights protections such as IDEA in a common sense fashion, enabling essential research, and promoting equality of opportunity where needed. v While in the Senate, Rick Santorum voted for No Child Left Behind, a vote he has since disavowed, and introduced amendments to the legislation that would allow the teaching of creationism in America's public schools.vi Ron Paul: Ron Paul's plan to balance the budget includes abolishing the Department of Education. vii According to Congressman Paul's website, the centerpiece of his education agenda is returning control of education to parents and teachers on the local level. Dr. Paul describes himself as a consistent supporter of homeschooling and educational freedom. viii Barry Goldwater: "I agree with lobbyists for federal school aid that education is one of the great problems of our day. I am afraid, however, that their views and mine regarding the nature of the problem are many miles apart. They tend to see the problem in *quantitative terms*-not enough schools, not enough teachers, not enough equipment. I think it has to do with *quality*: How good are the schools we have? Their solution is to spend more money. Mine is to raise standards. Their recourse is to the federal government. Mine is to the local public school board, the private school, the individual citizen - as far away from the federal government as one can possibly go. ix

"The American educational system strives for many goals: the broadest possible opportunity for every individual, in line with his talents; the highest possible quality, from elementary grades to graduate school; and the greatest possible free choice. By encouraging great diversity, and by preserving local and family responsibility, we have come ever closer to all these goals. I want to see us come closer still. But Federal aid is not the way. It would inevitably invite bureaucratic Federal control of school curricula. It would add wasteful freight charges on money collected by the Federal government and then parceled out to the states. It would continue to squeeze out the private school and the small college, in favor of large public institutions. And Federal aid programs cannot avoid stumbling over the complex church-state controversy... ...The way to sound support for American education is well fixed in our Constitutional tradition. We should leave in the hands of those who ought to make the key decision - our states the local communities, the family, the individual - sufficient resources to do the job as they see fit. This is best achieved by the use of tax credits - taken right off the top of each citizen's Federal income tax bill. Over the years, I have proposed legislation along these lines: (1) For the some 40 million Americans who pay local property taxes - regardless of whether their children attend public or private schools - I propose a tax credit based on the proportion of such local taxes allocated to public school costs. This credit would supplement the deductions from gross income permitted under existing law. (2) For all taxpayers who support students working toward a degree in any accredited college or university, I propose a similar tax credit. This credit would be adjusted to a sliding scale which gives greater benefits for the basic levels of college costs. (3) For those who make gifts to accredited colleges and universities of their own choice, I propose a tax credit covering the full amount of a modest annual gift." The results of all these proposals would be to increase the financial resources available to our states and localities, and particularly to the individual taxpayer." They would then be free to make their own choices, to allocate their own resources in support of education - without Federal intervention or the dead hand of Federal control."x

i ii iii iv v vi vii viii ix x

http://www.nytimes.com/2007/05/15/us/politics/16repubs-text.html?pagewanted=all http://www.theobjectivestandard.com/issues/2006-fall/decline-fall-american-conservatism.asp http://www.cato.org/publications/commentary/back-bushs-biggovernment-conservatism http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=M7eag0IpedE http://www.ricksantorum.com/restoring-americas-greatness-through-educational-freedom-and-opportunity http://www.thepoliticalguide.com/Profiles/Senate/Pennsylvania/Rick_Santorum/Views/Education/ http://www.usnews.com/news/articles/2011/10/17/ron-paul-1-trillion-cut-plan-targets-five-cabinet-departments http://www.ronpaul2012.com/the-issues/homeschooling/ See Goldwater, The Conscience of a Conservative, 71. http://news.google.com/newspapers?nid=rQKKVauEoioC&dat=19640821&printsec=frontpage&hl=en