Bill may set new school standard

What was the first state to ratify the U.S. Constitution?

What is the purpose of the 11th Amendment?

Don’t know?

Well, you may soon if a West Virginia senator gets his way.

As part of a new federal spending bill that passed through
Congress last week, Sen. Robert C. Byrd, D-W.Va., has inserted a
provision requiring all schools receiving federal aid, both public
and private, to devote part of a day each year to teach students
about the Constitution. All schools from elementary through college
would be subject to the legislation.

The provision has generated controversy over what some see as
intrusive involvement from the federal government in academic
curricula, but Byrd believes schools today are not teaching
students everything they need to know about the Constitution.

“While our educational system is good at ingraining
feelings of respect and reverence for our Constitution, that same
system is in need of great improvements in teaching what is
actually in the Constitution and just why it is so important to our
daily lives,” Byrd said in a statement released by his
office. “That’s the focus of my legislation.”

Byrd, regarded by many of his colleagues as an expert on the
Constitution, would have the schools teach about the document on
Sept. 17 ““ the anniversary of the date on which the
Constitution was signed in 1787.

Each school would be left to choose its preferred method of
teaching, which could include traditional classroom instruction,
guest speakers or some other method.

While most agree that teaching about the Constitution is
important, some education organizations are worried that the
federal government is overstepping its boundaries in the academic
sphere.

“Institutions should be free to determine what they judge
to be the best curriculum for their students,” said Jonathan
Knight, a spokesman for the American Association of University
Professors. “It would be more in keeping with the spirit of
the Constitution to encourage, rather than require, that
institutions teach about the Constitution.”

Knight called the legislation “worrisome” because he
said the “seeming implication” is that schools which
fail to adequately teach about the Constitution under the mandate
of the provision, may then be in danger of losing some or all of
their federal funding.

On a more immediate and practical level, the provision faces the
problem that some schools, like UCLA, do not begin their academic
year until after Sept. 17.

When presented with this information, representatives for Byrd,
apparently unaware of some schools’ later starting dates,
admitted it was something the senator has not yet addressed.

“Those questions have yet to be answered,” said Tom
Gavin, a spokesman for Byrd. “The legislation language is
very general.”

He said the provision was primarily concerned with encouraging a
greater understanding of the Constitution.

The non-partisan watchdog group Taxpayers for Common Sense
supports the idea of teaching about the Constitution, but Keith
Ashdown, the vice president of policy for the group, said tacking
on this type of legislation to a larger spending bill was not the
appropriate way to achieve it.

Ashdown characterized Byrd’s provision as an
“extraneous add-on that has made these types of spending
bills laborious and cumbersome.”