Extensive Interview with Huckabee on Education

CNS News has a lengthy and informative interview with Mike Huckabee about education.

Since Huckabee has been endorsed by both the National Education Association (NEA) and many homeschoolers (two groups that are normally like oil and water), exactly where Huckabee comes down on education is particularly interesting.

In the interview, Huckabee gives an answer about the constitutionality of the federal Department of Education that I find a little inconsistent. He at first says "I don't think there is really a federal role or responsibility, constitutionally, in education. I think education is a local function. It should be a state function." But then says that getting rid of the department is "virtually impossible" so we should give it a role consistent with the Constitution.

There is a constitutional role for defense, relations with other nation states, treasury, interstate commerce, etc., so it's easy to justify those departments. However, there is none for education beyond the generic statement in the preamble to "promote the general welfare," which the Founders made clear was to have a very limited application by Article 1 Section 8 of the Constitution, the 10th Amendment, and further explained in Federalist #45. In addition, here are a couple of quotes from the Founders on the "general welfare" clause:

Congress has not unlimited powers to provide for the general welfare, but only those specifically enumerated. - Thomas Jefferson

With respect to the two words 'general welfare,' I have always regarded them as qualified by the detail of powers connected with them. To take them in a literal and unlimited sense would be a metamorphosis of the Constitution into a character which there is a host of proofs was not contemplated by its creators. – James Madison

So if one is truly serious about respecting the Constitution, they would work to make our government look as much like the constitutional outline as possible.

The interview also covers Huckabee's opposition to vouchers, which he seems to say was based more on opposition from Christian schools than his own personal opposition. I do know that some Christian educators don't like the idea of vouchers, since they're afraid of strings that might someday come with them (while I say that if they start putting strings on them, you could always stop taking the vouchers then). However, since Huckabee has tried to cover his tracks on so many things already (such as immigration, his liberal clemency record, etc), I don't know if I believe him on this. I'd need to look more closely at what he's actually said about vouchers in the past, and I don't have that information readily at hand right now.

The interview covers a number of other educational areas of concern to Christians, so I'd recommend reading the whole thing.