Schools and Students Need Local Control

A new school year is in full swing across the Midwest. I know it all too well, as my youngest daughter just started her freshman year at Mizzou. Her first day of kindergarten still doesn't seem that long ago.

As students and teachers return to the classroom this fall, the House and Senate will be working jointly to reauthorize the Elementary and Secondary Schools Act.

I have always believed that teachers and parents are better positioned to make decisions for their schools than bureaucrats in Washington.

Education should not be an issue that divides Republicans and Democrats - everyone wants our children to go to good schools, have success in the classroom, and lead productive lives. But the simple fact is that the Education Department, working from hundreds or thousands of miles away, just cannot know what is best for every community in America.

Thomas Jefferson once said "That government is best which governs the least." There is nowhere his words ring truer than in our schools.