Conservative Hypocrisy on Education

One of the mantras for conservatives for decades when it comes to education is the importance of local control. So adamant were they about this that conservative politicians have long run on platforms advocating the elimination of the Department of Education completely. Indeed, the 1996 Republican Party Platform contained this item:

"The Federal Government has no constitutional authority to be involved in school curricula or to control jobs in the marketplace. That is why we will abolish the Department of Education."

The year before that, in fact, conservatives in Congress attempted to do exactly that. The bill that Clinton vetoed that resulted in shutting down the Federal government for quite some time (and, incidentally, led to him meeting Monica Lewinsky over pizza and a good 5 cent cigar) would have all but abolished the DOE. So they finally get control of both houses of Congress and the White House and what they do they do? Pass the most significant increase in Federal control over education in history.

And on top of that, of course, is the fact that they're now tying Federal sex education funds to the requirement that schools teach abstinence only. This is precisely the sort of Federal control that conservatives screamed about for decades and now they're engaging in it themselves. And we don't hear a peep about it from all those social conservatives. Because it's not really about Federal control at all, it's about their agenda and advancing it by any means possible.