An idea from my wife -

Millions of dollars are wasted in this country on an inefficient educational system that is rooted in constitutional law that gives each state the right to determine its own standards. Examples of federal laws that create unnecessary waste and cost in education because of the lack of provision for a natioanl education system under our current contsitutional system are - the individuals with disabilites education act (IDEA) and No Child Left Behind. Both federal laws require states to come up with their own processes and forms for documenting compliance with the law. In addition, No Child Left Behind and lawas that led to that Act, required states to each identify their own standards for student learning and to develop assessments for measuring student growth for each of those standards. Given the fact that for most content areas a developmental scope and sequence is fairly standard (for example children in any state will learn to count before they learn to add, and they will learn to add before they learn to subtract) the cost to taxpayers when each of the 50 states are required to develop their own state standards and practices is astounding. And frankly a crime in a nation in which 20 to 25 percent of the children live in poverty. Developing a national scope and sequence for curriculum and national assessment practices would require an amendment to the U.S. Constitution and would benefit our nation by reducing dramatically the cost of education as well as allowing students to move from state to state without a major disruption in their learning processes.

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