Federalism and the Race to the Top

The modern American vision of Democracy remains faithful to the one proposed by our Founding Fathers. Since the implementation of the Constitution in place of the Articles of Confederation, our country has stood firmly by the Federalist system: whereas many countries allow one central government to decide on public policy, much United States legislation is determined through its fifty state governments.

Arguments against the Federalist Papers were made, such as by proponents of the Confederacy, and criticisms have all but vanished. Perhaps the lack of centralized authority in the United States has indeed made some areas of public policy difficult to tackle--such as health care, where massive amounts of legislation have recently been required to enact reform.

But Federalism has endured for good reason. The Federalist approach has led to fifty discrete systems of public schooling, in contrast to the unilateral approach that many countries take towards education. This has allowed for competition that has the potential to raise the standard of American education as a whole, which President Obama has recognized through his introduction of the Race to the Top fund as part of the American Recovery and Restoration Act (ARRA). In contrast to No Child Left Behind (NCLB), the focus of Race to the Top is on fostering competition between states, rather than setting national standards that encourage states that lower their education standards to achieve preset goals. In recognizing that much of our country's public school legislation occurs on the state level, President Obama has finally found the proper outlet for the Fed's spendings on education.

The Race to the Top fund has an endowment of $4.35 billion, to be allotted to schools that "achieve significant improvement in student outcomes, including making substantial gains in student achievement, closing achievement gaps, improving high school graduation rates, and ensuring that students are prepared for success in college and careers."

While Federalism may struggle in some areas where centralized government more readily succeeds, its ability to focus on the individual needs of each State have not gone unnoticed. Even without the promise of the Race to the Top fund, some states have begun their own races towards successful educational systems.