This post was contributed by a community member. The views expressed here are the author's own.

Health & Fitness

League Leads Conversation on Education

What is the appropriate role of the federal government in public education? The League of Women Voters did a study to find out.

What is the appropriate role of the federal government in public education? Is its role too big, too small, or, like Goldilocks, just right? Is kindergarten intervention too late for some children? If so, should we invest federal dollars in parent education? In early childhood education? And what's up with those Common Core standards, anyway?

The League of Women Voters has a robust, respected history of speaking out on local and state education issues. This is because local and state Leagues have studied those issues, held meetings where the pros and cons of those issues were discussed, and members have come to informed consensus regarding local and state education issues. But, in this era of No Child Left Behind and Race to the Top, Leaguers were helpless to comment on those critical national education issues because the League of Women Voters of the United States had never held a national study on education.

That has now changed. Thanks to grassroots efforts by a hardy band of LWV members from Palo Alto, Mountain View and Berkeley, delegates at the 2010 national convention voted to approve a national study on "The Federal Role in Public Education." Following that approval, LWVUS swung into action, soliciting members for the national study committee. Those members then crafted questions and education papers for the study participants. Only then did they distribute those questions and papers to local Leagues. All Spring, Summer and Fall of last year Leaguers all over the country read, discussed, and attended forums on education.

Find out what's happening in Mountain Viewwith free, real-time updates from Patch.

All five Leagues in Santa Clara County quickly got deeply involved with pre-study conversations and research, culminating in each League holding their own consensus questions meetings last fall. Leagues throughout the state and the country did the same.

By December all Leagues in the country submitted their consensus answers to LWVUS. At that point the national committee started reviewing all the answers, and are crafting a series of positions that they will recommend to the LWVUS board. And then this summer, when Leaguers from around the country meet in Washington, D.C., for their bi-annual convention, they'll have the chance to approve the first-ever national policy on education.

Find out what's happening in Mountain Viewwith free, real-time updates from Patch.

Once that happens, expect to hear the informed voice of the League of Women Voters on all sorts of issues related to the federal role in public education.

I can hardly wait!

Readers are invited to visit the website of LWV Los Altos-Mountain View to read the consensus answers of that League. See www.lwvlamv.org

See the accompanying photos taken before a well-attended education forum for this study which featured Stanford education professor, Linda Darling-Hammond. The forum was co-sponsored by LWV, Sixth District PTA, and Community Action Team.

We’ve removed the ability to reply as we work to make improvements. Learn more here

The views expressed in this post are the author's own. Want to post on Patch?