Michelle and Barack Obama have issued an edict to public schools to ban ads for junk food and soft drinks in schools. Now, I think it’s probably a bad idea to be pushing junk food in schools, but this is not the Obamas’ call. In fact, it’s not the call of anybody in the federal government.
Schools are run by the states and the counties or cities. They have school boards that are elected and accountable to the people. If anyone is going to ban ads of any kind in schools it’ll be them. But the Obamas think it’s their place to do this. I’m waiting for a governor somewhere to stand up and put these federal officials in their place. So far, I haven’t seen one.
But this didn’t start with the Obamas. I’m not sure where it started. George W. Bush had his No Child Left Behind program that dictated standards to schools. Like the Obama initiative, it was well-meaning but it was wrong. The federal government has no business getting involved.
The reason they do is because of money. They give money to the states, or more accurately, they give the money back to the states, and there are strings attached. States need to learn this lesson and start weaning themselves from the federal government. The federal government, however, has made it too tempting.
So, there’s only one solution to this. We need to dissolve the Department of Education. I can hear a collective gasp from many of you reading this. Just so you’ll know, the Department of Education has only been around since 1979. Yeah, I was able to make it all the way through school without one.
It started out innocently enough. It was supposed to be a clearinghouse for great ideas. In other words, they were supposed to monitor what was working in one state and share it with the others. Eventually, though, it did what any government agency does. It took on a life of its own. Now it is a huge behemoth that grows each day in its audacity. To put it another way, and a way Michelle Obama might understand, it’s a bully. The Department of Education is bullying states and local districts. It’s telling them too often what to teach and it’s telling them what to feed their kids.
Pretty soon, candy sales for the school band will be outlawed. The local ice cream store won’t be allowed to by an ad in the school yearbook. Then the school newspaper won’t be allowed to publish pictures of kids at a fast-food restaurant. Where will it end?
The short answer is it won’t. Not as long as nobody is willing to stand up to these bullies. And what’s this obsession with our health and our weight anyway? I mean, did anybody on the right tell Michelle not to get her hair cut like Moe Howard? (Boy, I’m glad she dropped that hairstyle) No! It’s her hair. Why do they care if people are fat or not exercising or eating donuts or drinking too much or smoking too much?
Why? Because they’re liberals and that’s what liberals do. It’s not about live and let live. It’s about live and tell everyone else how to live. Think about it. Whether it’s the environment or gays or anything else, they feel compelled to tell you how to live your life.
It’s time states start pushing back. The reason the federal government has gotten away with this intrusion for so long is because the states have allowed them to. That has to stop.
