CONSTITUTION OF THE STATE OF TENNESSEE

ADOPTED IN CONVENTION AT NASHVILLE,
FEBRUARY 23, 1870. PROCLAIMED AND IN EFFECT, MAY 5, 1870 
Article XI  MISCELLANEOUS PROVISIONS

Tennessee. Constitution. Article. XI, Section 12
Education's inherent value -- Public schools -- Support of higher education.

The State of Tennessee recognizes the inherent value of education and encourages its support. The General Assembly shall provide for the maintenance, support and eligibility standards of a system of free public schools. The General Assembly may establish and support such postsecondary educational institutions, including public institutions of higher learning, as it determines.

What a novel and benevolent idea. That our state forefathers would feel that an educated population was so important to the state that providing a free education to it's citizens was required in our constitution. Boy, if our forefathers could see us now.

Such a simple idea and it worked well for many, many years. But like everything else the government get's involved in, the simple idea has now become a nightmare.

Public education has morphed from simply providing education to providing daycare, becoming family supervisors, transportation and sports authorities, food specialists, child rearing professionals, after school providers, poverty identifiers and mitigaters and in many communities, the largest employers. All these new mandates have really put the squeeze on the original mandate of providing free EDUCATION.

Unfortunately, this is what happens every time you have a top down government managed organization. In this case, the state and federal governments dictating the activities of local organizations, in this case education.

About every five or ten years, the educated egg heads that make up academic community come up with the "new" idea in education that will finally fix our failing education system. And just like clockwork, the new idea is another failure yet the egg heads will always double down on their failure with even more failing ideas. Their answer is always the same thing. More money.

The greatest problem with public education is the top down control school systems are faced with. The directives come down from the federal and state governments where most of those making the rules and regulations know very little about the needs of the local school systems. A one size fits all system you might say. This system has been a total failure which is reflected in our failing school systems.

Maybe it's time for public education to get back to it's original mandate of educating children.

Not until the overlord government officials get out of our schools and turn control back over to the locals and communities will there ever be any improvements. History has proven that.