Tea Party's War On Public Schools

The Daily Beast reports:

As Obama seeks to tighten federal control over local schools and boost accountability, he faces a tough battle with incoming GOP lawmakers, who advocate "parental rights" and tax credits for home schooling.

When it comes to school reform, President Obama and his secretary of Education, Arne Duncan, intend to spend 2011 pursuing more federal influence over local schools—particularly in the areas of curriculum standards and teacher evaluation and pay. “Am I hopeful? Absolutely,” Duncan told Politico last month. “Am I optimistic? Yes. Do I think it’s the right thing to do for children, for the country? Absolutely.”

But the White House’s play for a bipartisan legislative victory on education could be slowed by the latest small-government fad sweeping the GOP caucus: the ideology of “parental rights,” an outgrowth of the Christian conservative homeschooling movement that has made deep in-roads among Tea Party activists and the candidates they support.

From influential freshmen Senators Marco Rubio and Rand Paul to new House members Rick Berg and Kristie Noem, a number of incoming freshmen ran as advocates of the homeschool and parental-rights movement, and oppose almost every federal effort to regulate or improve schools. They favor closing the Department of Education and have no problem thumbing their noses at the Republican Party’s recent history of support for expensive, top-down school reform efforts such as No Child Left Behind.

It's time to leave public education behind.