Failure: The Federal Miseducation of America's Children

A comprehensive account and frank assessment of federal involvement in education is long overdue. Education policy expert Vicki E. Alger remedies this deficiency with her book, Failure: The Federal Miseducation of America’s Children. As its title indicates, Failure makes no effort to sugar coat its findings: Created in 1979, after a lobbying campaign that spanned generations, the Department of Education has failed to live up to its promises. Federal involvement—whether related to testing, funding, or academic curricula—has failed to abide by the Constitution’s implication that education must remain the domain only of state and local governments and private institutions. Most of all, the central government’s pervasive meddling in education has failed America’s school children and their parents. Education policy has long been mired in controversies, often with opposing sides missing the mark. Failure helps us step back from the skirmish du jour and redirects our focus to the big picture, showing us what’s gone wrong over the decades and the institutional causes of these failures. It also offers a bold blueprint for returning the federal government to its constitutional role and for cultivating an educational system that meets the needs of students and parents, rather than bureaucrats. Concerned citizens of every stripe will benefit from Failure’s history of federal education policy, its brutally honest report card for the Department of Education, its look at education systems across the globe, and its ambitious policy recommendations. Failure might even succeed in reframing the way the federal education establishment thinks about education policy.

About the Author :
Vicki E. Murray-Alger is Research Fellow at the Independent Institute and author of more than forty education policy studies, including Failure: The Federal Miseducation of America's Children, and co-author of Lean Together: An Agenda for Smarter Government, Stronger Communities, and More Opportunities for Women, Short-Circuited: The Challenges Facing the Online Learning Revolution in California, and Not as Good as You Think: Why the Middle Class Needs School Choice. She lives in Arizona with her husband David.

Review :
“Vicki Alger’s Failure is a timely and well-researched tour de force that should be read by anyone interested in promoting genuine educational reform in America. After delineating the long history of educational policy in America, Alger focuses on the ineluctable growth of federal intervention in education policy since the Civil War. This intervention has fallen far short of attaining pedagogical improvement. And the regulatory creep it has wrought has included political entanglements and policy mischief wrought by the U.S. Department of Education (ED), established in 1979—serving as yet another example of the classic regulatory triangle of politicians, bureaucracy, and interest groups (e.g., NEA and teachers’ unions) that too often serves the self-interest of stakeholders rather than the public interest in educational attainment. Calling for the ‘strategic dismantling’ of ED, Alger provides constructive examples of decentralization in other developed countries and in U.S. history.” “The strongest pro-choice arguments for school reform—more power to parents and students—can be found in the pages of Failure. There is indeed risk in Vicki Alger’s prescriptions but no doubt about the deadly cost of inaction.” “American schools are among the most costly in the world. Yet U.S. students are among the mediocre achievers in math, science, and other subjects. In Failure, Vicki Alger explains why and how substantial improvements can be made.” “Failure offers a fresh, provocative perspective on how American policymakers abandoned the Constitution in pursuit of a misguided vision that the federal government could improve upon generations of local and state control of education. Full of revelations, Failure offers a comprehensive history of federal education policy together with a step-by-step blueprint to dismantle the Department of Education and move forward with school choice and competition—the two best indicators of success in Alger’s informative, cross-national analysis. Nations that favor parental choice and school competition, rather than compulsion and coercion, are leading the world in student test scores. And unlike other critics of federal education policy, Alger stresses the ongoing debate—from the Founders to the 1970s—over whether the federal government had any constitutional role to play in education. The answer, for the most part, is ‘NO!’ but political expediency has led both Democrats and Republicans alike down the road of increasing federal control of education. Now packed with eye-opening statistics and interesting anecdotes, Failure couples a compelling narrative with dispiriting data on how poorly American students have performed despite increased spending. Money is not the answer, nor is central control. The real solution is choice and competition. After decades of failed ‘reforms,’ Alger will sway readers with her argument for abolishing the Department of Education and getting the federal government out of the education business.” “The analysis in Failure is thorough and its conclusions are supported by its documented facts. The recommendations are grounded in the reality of now, not yesterday, and if ignored, America’s position as the world’s leader in educational preparedness of its citizenry will never be reclaimed. This book is a must-read for all who still believe that politicians know more about educating children than the parents to whom they belong.” “Back in the 1980s, Presidential candidate Ronald Reagan proposed rolling back federal control of education and sending control back to the states and the people. That effort was stillborn, but if the people who were serious about Reagan’s proposal then had Failure as a guide they would have gotten far further. This important book digs into the facts about low-school performance and counterproductive federal aid. Anyone who cares about America’s schoolchildren should read and consider Failure for its background information, critical analysis, and root-and-branch reforms.”