The Case for Educational Federalism: Protecting Educational Policy from the National Government's Diseconomies of Scale

39 Pages Posted: 22 Jun 2012 Last revised: 7 Aug 2012

Date Written: August 2012

Abstract

In a federal system, which level of government — federal, state, or local — should pursue educational innovations? This article defends the presumption that, the higher the level of government pressing the educational innovation, the stronger the presumption that the innovation should be modest. The argument for this presumption rests on the premises, defended in the article, that (1) there are few scale economies in K-12 education that cannot be realized by subnational governments and (2) national governments suffer from diseconomies of scale that make them less responsive to parental networks most capable of insuring educational services are well-monitored for the welfare of children. In light of these two principles, national intervention in educational policy-making should be reserved for two goals – first, provision of genuinely national public goods the benefits of which plainly cross state borders (for example, educational assistance for indigent households and provision of skills related to national defense) and, second, national supervision of subnational political processes to insure democratically accountable representation of ethno-cultural and other minorities in educational policy-making.

Keywords: Federalism, Constitutional Law, Education

JEL Classification: I28, H11, H23, H77, H71, D73, D71

Suggested Citation

Hills, Roderick Maltman, The Case for Educational Federalism: Protecting Educational Policy from the National Government's Diseconomies of Scale (August 2012). Notre Dame Law Review, 2012, NYU School of Law, Public Law Research Paper No. 12-37, Available at SSRN: https://ssrn.com/abstract=2088838

Roderick Maltman Hills (Contact Author)

New York University School of Law ( email )

40 Washington Square South
New York, NY 10012-1099
United States

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