Should Washington Become a Venture Capitalist for Education?

[Valin]

Ricochet: James Pethokoukis

2/25/13

 

Conservatives and libertarians have long been skeptical of the federal role in education. The Department of Education is frequently offered up as a candidate for closure. More recently there’s been talk of a Medicaid-education swap where Washington would take full control of the former, the state the latter. Others would like to transform the federal role. During his presidential campaign, Jon Huntsman advocated a Department of Education Reform with Washington “acting as a clearinghouse for information and ideas, empowering states and local communities to take ownership of education reform.”

 

AEI’s Rick Hess and Andrew Kelly point out that on the K-12 level, the federal government “has enjoyed real success in ensuring constitutional protections, using the bully pulpit to spotlight national education priorities, offering states incentives to implement bright-line policy, and fostering greater transparency.” One area where government hasn’t done so well is promoting innovation. I had that reality in mind as I read about the latest big education idea from Democrats:

 

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My enthusiasm for this idea is somewhat tempered also by the fact that two minutes before reading about ARPA-ED, I had read a tough analysis of ARPA-E, an agency created in 2009 to fund the development of early stage energy technologies at university labs and small companies.

 

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