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Government Vs Federal Government

Decent Essays

George Smith wrote that Thomas Jefferson believed the distribution of power among federal, state, county, and local agencies was indispensable to America’s “system of fundamental balances and checks for the government.” (Smith, 2012) Today federal, state, and local governments still play important roles in the operations of public schools through providing funding, policies, scope and organization of school systems. Through the years, the federal government has increased their position in governing public schools, state government works to guide and offer clarification, and local government is responsible for the day to day affairs.
In Federal Control of Public Schools and the Decline of Community Carl Bankston III discusses the fact that the US Constitution makes no reference to schools or education. Since there is no direct mention the Tenth Amendment reserves all the power to be held at the state and to the people. In fact, federal government had no say in the first public schools, all power was delegated to the state. It wasn’t until after the Civil War that the federal government would become involved with public education. Then after each war federal involvement would continue to increase. Court cases like Brown vs. The Board of Education, Swann v. Charlotte-Mecklenburg, and Green vs. County School Board would be influential in the federal governments control. Even with the added involvement the U.S. Department of Education states that the Federal contribution

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