Gingrich implied that the new program will not undermine local freedom because congressmen have done such a wise job in writing the legislation. If there are no strings attached, then there will be little or no control over how the money is spent. Gingrich may not have noticed but, in recent decades, school boards in many places across the country have become powerless window dressing for bureaucracies and unions. An additional slopping of federal money is not going to reverse the effect of trends going back over half a century. The only way the new program would not endanger local freedom is if, miraculously, all future members of Congress and all political appointees lost all their desire to use the power within their grasp.
Federal subsidies lead to federal controls because politicians like political power.
Besides, there is an overwhelming amount of research that shows that marginal changes in class size provide no educational benefit to children. Once again, fantasy trumps reality. Gingrich bragged in August that the Republican Congress had reformed the Food and Drug Administration with a bill passed earlier this year. One might have expected Republicans to pay more attention after the preceding FDA director, David Kessler, turned out to be both a regulatory fanatic and a political turncoat. The confirmation of Henney was typical of the gross negligence that both houses of Congress have shown for any issue more complex than flag burning.