Education
50 years ago the US had the best educational system in the world. The increased governmental control in US K12 public education is directly and proportionally related to the degradation of the educational system. Now many foreign countries have educational systems superior to US public education.
Bob's wife, Barbara, was a certified teacher in an urban high school and his son, Scott, is a certified teacher in a rural area. Please consider that Bob's commitment to education is to return the American educational system to the best in the world through local control, individual freedom and personal responsibility.
Either the Red and Blue philosophies will improve education in America if fully implemented. It is the mixture of the two competing ideas and the resulting confrontations that are the reasons for the decline in our national educational system.
Red Philosophy
When the federal government had limited educational control, America had the world’s best educational performance. It must be acknowledged that the US Constitution does not grant the federal government power over public education and therefore public education is a state and/or individual's right and federal control is unconstitutional. See the10th Amendment to the Constitution.
Encourage local community choice for the form and delivery of education including the extent of school privatization. Under local control school vouchers would be effective for empowering citizens to upgrade educational performance. Also local teacher input would greatly enhance education.
Discontinue all federal education mandates such as “No Child Left Behind” because they simply have not worked. Discontinue the myriad of "Titles" which dilute the best use of funds because they simply do not work as well as local control. Federal controls and mandates are unconstitutional and they just don’t make sense.
Blue Philosophy
The Constitution is very clear that the general welfare, including education, is a national responsibility. The federal government can and should set the standards and assist in the support for all the educational institutions from preschool through the universities. This will provide equal access to the best educational system for all children and adults in the country. It is absolutely necessary that all students of all ages have equal access to the highest standards of education regardless of race, nationality, and ability to pay, etc.... Only this all-inclusive progressive educational system will develop our country into the best educated population in the world. This can only be implemented equally throughout every neighborhood in the country by the federal government.
Conclusion
These diametrically opposed opinions, both with valid supporting data, are additional prime reasons for the adoption of the proposed amendment.