Well La-Tee-Dah! As reported here
at The Hayride, Louisiana’s Superintendent of Education Cade Brumley
is being considered to lead the federal government’s Dept of Education in a
possible Trump administration. This is
presented in mostly positive terms in the article, but nothing very good would
come of it for all the parties involved.
First, it further entrenches
the idea that the federal government should be involved in directing education
in the States. There isn’t the slightest
hint of a clause in the federal constitution giving it that power. This is admitted even by the strongest
supporters of the Philadelphia charter at the time of the ratification
debates. Tench Coxe of Pennsylvania was
one of those men. In his writings he
produced some lengthy lists of powers granted to and withheld from the newly
re-organized federal government. Among
those powers forbidden to the federal government he included the ability to
regulate education (bolding added):
‘They cannot interfere
with the opening of rivers and canals; the making or regulation of roads,
except post roads; building bridges; erecting ferries; establishment of
state seminaries of learning; libraries; literary, religious, trading or
manufacturing societies; erecting or regulating the police of cities, towns
or boroughs; creating new state offices; building light houses, public wharves,
county gaols, markets, or other public buildings; making sale of state lands,
and other state property; receiving or appropriating the incomes of state
buildings and property; executing the state laws; altering the criminal law;
nor can they do any other matter or thing appertaining to the internal affairs
of any state, whether legislative, executive or judicial, civil or
ecclesiastical’ (Mike Maharrey, ‘Tench Coxe: A Detailed Breakdown of State vs.
Federal Powers’, tenthamendmentcenter.com).
Second, his efforts would be
largely wasted if he became the federal Secretary of Education. A lot of his time and energy would be wasted
fighting recalcitrant federal bureaucrats opposed to using the department to promote
conservative/revivalist policies. More of
his effort would be wasted in fighting Blue State governments who would throw
up as many obstacles as they could think of to block his policies in their jurisdictions.
And they would actually be
justified in doing so, per Tench Coxe, James Madison, and others, who were
emphatic that the States should resist unlawful federal encroachments into
their domains. We would note that Mr
Brumley is one of those who used that same prerogative of the States to block
some of the Biden regime’s unconstitutional and un-Christian rules. Would he then renounce the principle of State
sovereignty simply because he had become the wielder of federal power and force
Blue States to do his bidding? We hope
he would have more integrity than that, particularly since education was not
envisioned as one of the areas in which the federal government was to have one
iota of influence.
The better alternative is to
stop illegitimately using the federal government to cudgel one’s opponents,
whether Red or Blue. If neither side is
willing to agree to a détente, then a separation of the States is needed.
Third, Mr Brumley leaving
Louisiana for a job in DC would further promote Louisiana’s ‘brain drain’,
essentially reinforcing the message to Louisianans that they ought not to stay
and labor to build a better State, but rather that they ought to flee elsewhere
as soon as an opportunity opens up. We
would like to see the opposite begin to happen:
All the Right-leaning folks who have fled to DC should return home to
build up Louisiana. . . .
The rest is at https://thehayride.com/2024/10/garlington-stay-home-cade-dont-go-to-dc/.
--
Holy
Ælfred the Great, King of England, South Patron, pray for us sinners at the Souð, unworthy though we are!
Anathema
to the Union!
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