The Evolving Role of Government Education

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The Evolving Role of Government in Education

What are the roles of federal and state government when it comes to American education? The roles of education have evolved from historic liabilities to current liabilities. There are many laws and cases that have had an impact on American education that still has a strong influence on education today such as the debate between church and state, racial desegregation, and education finances. Other impacts as relevant are testing standards and special education programs that have arisen from influences of federal concerns. The purpose of this paper is to examine the historical and current roles that the federal and state government has on education. Other factors to include are individual cases and laws along with an analysis of the church and state debate of public education.

The federal government historical effects of American education continue to have effects on education today. It started from having no intentions of providing education to currently having limited roles. It was not of importance to include education within the American society, in fact, it was not of importance to include it in the most authoritative charter of America, the United States Constitution of America, written in 1787. The Constitution, the highest and most powerful law of America did not include education or schooling within its documentation; because it was not of concern at that time (Guthrie, 2002). This had then given the federal government limited right to be heard in American education, until the establishment of Amendments. Therefore, the roles they had many years ago are still limited, concerning the welfare and importance of education today.

Federal and state histories established meaningfu...

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Myers, L. (2000). U.S Constituton. Amendment XIV. Manuscript submitted for publication,

Legal Information Institute, Cornell Law School, Itaca, NY. Retrieved May 16, 2011

from http:// topics.law.cornell.edu/constitution/amendmentxiv

Spellings, M. (2005). U.S. Department of Education. 10 Facts About K-12 Education Funding.

Washington, D.C. Retrieved May 16, 2011 from

http://www2.ed.gov/about/overview/fed/10facts/index.html#return

Walton, J., Augenblick, J., Barkis, A., Silverstein, J., Picus, L. (2003). Financial Support of

Schools. Encyclopedia of Education. 2 (3), 884-891. Retrieved May 16, 2011

http://go.galegroup.com/ps/i.do?&id=GALE%7CCX3403200245&v=2.1&u=canyonuniv&it=r&p=GVRL&sw=w

Webb, L. D., Metha, A., K. Forbis J. (2010). Foundations of American Education.

Upper Saddle River, NJ: Published by Merrill.

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