Michele Bachmann, Rick Perry, Mitt Romney, Herman Cain, Ron Paul. To you, these names might be of little significance; but as high school students, their plans will certainly affect you. If you’re Muslim, Cain has been quoted saying that constitutionally speaking, Americans can revoke your right to build mosques. If you plan on growing older, Perry has called Social Security a “Ponzi scheme,” and unconstitutional. If you plan on working, Paul has vehemently opposed the minimum wage. As a student, Bachmann has said she wants to “dismantle” the Department of Education. What do all of these people have in common? They all want to be the next President of the United States of America. They also all claim to be experts on the contents of the Constitution.

You might think that I am taking these comments out of context; unfortunately, I am not. I could quote for you the entirety of these comments, but I think you might be just as flabbergasted as I was listening to them. If you follow politics at all, you have probably seen the stories of Perry calling global warming a “lie,” and that no scientific evidence has been “proven” to support such a claim. These sound like fighting words. That’s because they are. Yes, the 2012 election is a whole 14 months away, but before these candidates can get away with more rhetoric, I need to get this frustration out of my system.

Whether you are Democrat or Republican, Independent, or undecided, before you jump to the defense of your favorite candidate, take a step back. Just as an example to all of the other fallacious statements mentioned above, let’s take a look at the comment, which as students, would most greatly affect us all: Bachmann’s plan to shutter the Department of Education. According to CNN, at a forum on Sept. 5, Bachmann claimed that the Department of Education was unconstitutional because “the Constitution does not specifically enumerate nor does it give to the federal government the role and duty to superintend over education that historically has been held by the parents and by local communities and by state governments.” I don’t think I’ve ever found myself shaking my head, and rolling my eyes, as much as I did here. Let’s do some research.

First of all, even if elected president, the power to find something unconstitutional is held only by the U.S. Supreme Court. This is something we’ve all known since the eighth grade. Mind you, as a member of Congress, Bachmann, by no doubt, knows this too. The sad reality is that she believes that Americans do not, and according to the polls she’s right. In a Sept. 1 Rasmussen Reports poll, if nominated for the GOP spot, Bachmann would have 38 percent of America’s vote. However, if Bachmann were to remain consistent in her policies of “constitutional conservatism,” not even the Supreme Court would be able to find such a facet of government unconstitutional. The concept of doing so was established in 1803, in the case Marbury v. Madison. This concept of judicial review was not “specifically enumerated” in the Constitution; wasn’t that Bachmann’s premise for dismantling the Department of Education?

Secondly, historically speaking, Bachmann is right in saying that the power to superintend over education has been held by parents and local communities. In fact, it still is! A quick visit to the Department of Education’s website will confirm this. Education is still a function of the state (Thus, the reason why Virginia administers the SOLs, not the federal government), and not the federal government. As enumerated on the Department’s website, “The Department (of Education) does not establish schools and colleges; develop curricula; set requirements for enrollment and graduation; determine state education standards; or develop or implement testing to measure whether states are meeting their education standards. These are responsibilities handled by the various states and districts as well as by public and private organizations of all kinds, not by the U.S. Department of Education.” Must I say more?

The Department of Education administers federal funding to public and private schools nationwide. This is how the Department influences educational policy, because they reserve the right to withhold funds from schools that do not follow such a policy. This is not unique to the Department of Education, however; most of the federal government is able to influence policy in this way.

This is something that most Americans seem to not know, or care for knowing. This example, unfortunately, only represents the “tip of the iceberg.” Elections have now become so diffuse with lies that the Washington Post runs a column entitled “The Fact Checker.” What a sad reality. If Americans simply “did the math,” and refused to take such superficial comments at face value, we wouldn’t even be taking Bachmann, or the likes of her, seriously. Really, enough with the rhetoric; let’s get to work.