Opinion

Let states set school policy

Posted March 16, 2013 5:00 am

I usually support the efforts Sen. Mark Kirk makes on behalf of all us, but not this time. His joint sponsorship of the “Safe Schools Improvement Act” would bring the federal government even closer to running our public schools.

The governance of public education is the responsibility of the states. The federal government has no business in requiring virtually every public school in the nation to develop an anti-bullying policy. It would furthermore require the states to collect information reported by school districts on incidents and report these to the Department of Education.

Really? How many new government jobs will this bill create? Is this something our federal government should be worrying about when there are larger problems such as our economy or threats from Iran and North Korea that need addressing? Are our school districts so inept and our state education departments so broken that school bullying should now become a “federal offense” to perhaps be investigated by the FBI? Sen. Kirk, please rethink this one.

Kenneth Panczyk

Mount Prospect

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