Education is often mistakenly seen as a federal government-led aspect of society, but it is actually almost completely controlled by the states – and in particular local school districts and counties.

The powers that differentiate and enumerate whether the federal or state level has adjudicating control has been legislated over centuries, and is typically decided by the power of the purse – or in other words, by what the federal government will or will not fund at the local level. Basically, if the federal government comes up with a rule and states decide not to follow it, the federal government can deny an appropriation (not pay their annual budget) at their discretion. In trying to understand this complex relationship, it is helpful to think of it in this way – the federal government typically only gets involved in education when there are constitutional rights at risk. This means if there are any policies impacting a student or teacher’s constitutional protections, the federal government will typically intervene. It especially seeks to ensure that there is equal access to education. So while education is not a constitutional right, for the federal government it is deemed important enough to warrant constitutional protections.