As evidenced by two recent reports, a chasm exists between the ways state government officials nationwide view federal control of education and health care:

On Feb. 2, the Heritage Foundation published an article in which they highlighted the fact that the majority of states (see graphic at right) have succumbed to pressure to adopt national academic standards; and

Two days earlier, a federal judge sided with attorneys general representing 26 states who had filed a lawsuit challenging the constitutionality of the Patient Protection and Affordable Care Act (a.k.a., “ObamaCare”).

According to a Wall Street Journal article published today, several polls show the majority of Americans believe ObamaCare should be repealed. That sentiment, I believe, stems from the widely-held belief that a person’s doctor is better equipped to make health care-related decisions than some federal government bureaucrat.

Without feeling the need to locate poll results to back it up my contention, I think most parents of school-age children in this country would agree that people closest to their children are better equipped to meet their education needs than some distant, unelected Department of Education bureaucrat in Washington, D.C.

In his Jan. 31 ruling on ObamaCare, which I wrote about here, Judge Roger Vinson wrote, “…this case is not about whether the Act is wise or unwise legislation. It is about the Constitutional role of the federal government.”

Conversely, Heritage outlines the unconstitutional pitfalls associated with federal control of education in the video, “The Dangers of National Standards in Education.” The video includes interviews with Governors Rick Perry (R-Texas) and Nikki Haley (R-S.C.), Rep. Rob Bishop (R-Utah), Missouri education activist Gretchen Logue and others who spoke to Heritage about the dangerous consequences of Race to the Top-style programs.

In short, we must restore federalism (i.e., allowing states to set education standards and determine how funds are spent) to our system of public education.

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If only they were as determined to cut spending.  Alas, Congressional Democrats are hell-bent on taking care of their friends in the teachers unions.

The original $23 billion “Education Jobs Fund,” or “public schools bailout,” in the words of American Federation of Teachers president Randi Weingarten, fizzled, despite earnest lobbying by both the AFT and the larger National Education Association.

That number was trimmed to $10 billion and inserted into the Afghanistan war spending bill in a cynical maneuver cooked up by Big Labor.

While that passed the House, word is emerging that the pork-laden war bill isn’t going anywhere in the Senate.

But Big Labor’s pals aren’t giving up.  They’re a tenacious bunch that will find one way or another to continue spending oodles more on a bloated system that’s underserving America’s children.

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The dysfunction within the ranks of Washington D.C. Democrats is growing worse.

On the left, there is the president of the United States, trying to secure continued funding for troops in battle and to protect an education reform program. On the far left, House Democrats are attempting to stuff domestic pork into the war spending bill and they want funds from one of the president’s signature programs to pay for it.

It’s set up a stare down of the left versus the far left.  And they all blame the Republicans.

It would make for good political theater if it didn’t involve troops in harm’s way or spending even more money we don’t have to benefit Democratic campaign funders like the American Federation of Teachers and the National Education Association.

President Obama has gone as far as to threaten a veto if the teachers union bailout comes at the expense of “Race to the Top,” the president’s competitive grant program that awards money to states with the boldest education reforms.

But Democrats can only blame themselves for the mess they’ve made.  They’ve allowed Big Labor to use its muscle to inject pork into a bill of critical importance.  They are using key legislation as vehicles to pass ideas that are less palatable, such as increased spending on an assembly line-like failing public education system.

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The power to make money, and the ability to receive a reward for assuming risk, have been cornerstones of America’s economic success.  A free-enterprise system made the U.S. the world’s only remaining superpower.

Sadly, all of the above are foreign concepts to the government-run public education system.  Karen Lewis, the new president of the Chicago Teachers Union, recently fired this shot across the administrators’ bow:

I’m giving notice to [Chicago Public Schools’ CEO] Ron Huberman and the board: you’ve met your match.  We will no longer be played.

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We’re going to put business in its place: out of our schools.  These corporate heads and politicians seem willing to trade off our childrens’ and educators’ futures to pad their bottom line.

Her speech goes on with one-liners that would make Mao Tse-Tung (and Karl Marx) blush.  Anita Dunn, call your office!  This is the type of person we should expect to teach students an appreciation of what’s made America great?  Perhaps Ms. Lewis would fit better in the Havana Education Association than any teacher group in America.

The National Education Association recently considered a New Business Item at its annual convention which called for bouncing Education Secretary (and former CPS CEO) Arne Duncan and replace him with “a person who is aligned with the interests of the NEA, its members, and especially the students it serves.”  The reason?

The D.O.E. must be led by someone who sees all students as deserving of an excellent public school and the federal funding it requires, not just those in states that can win resources by best adopting  Sect. Duncan’s competitive philosophy.

Leaving aside my quibbles with the reform competition known as “Race to the Top,”  what has made it successful is the fact that states have had to one-up each other in terms of legislating reforms to in order to compete for the money.  I can see why that wouldn’t fly in the public schools of say, Cuba.  But apparently it’s just as unwelcome in the union halls of Chicago and elsewhere in America.

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The original $23 billion in public education stimulus spending has been whittled down to $10 billion and cynically stuffed in a bill to continue funding the war effort in Afghanistan.  While Democrats can hardly be accused of coming up with the idea, it’s a maneuver that we can ill afford right now.

If the Democrats had the courage to continue racking up debt to give handouts to their political supporters, they’d promote the bill on its own. But they don’t, so it’s stuck in a bill that has nothing to do with education and everything to do with a war effort President Obama once said “We need to win.”

Perhaps he should remind his fellow Democrats of that and not allow them to hold the war in Afghanistan  hostage by demanding pork barrel spending to satisfy campaign financiers.

Worse yet, the president and his administration are allowing members of their own party to strip funding away from one of Obama’s signature initiatives, Race to the Top – a $4 billion fund aimed at incentivizing reforms such as performance pay and charter schools.

So Democrats such as Rep. Dave Obey want to take funds away from reform and give them to maintaining a failing status quo.  Is that where the Democratic Party really stands on sensible and much-needed reform?  Apparently when the going gets tough, they revert back to instinct: whatever Big Labor wants, Big Labor gets.  Don Loos exposed a communication on BigGovernment.com showing the firefighters union president explaining it was Big Labor’s idea to attach public works spending to the war bill.

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