A few days ago I itemized several bad things that are happening in Washington when it comes to education. Happily, I can now report one good development, and it’s something that could help put an end to all that bad stuff.

The good news is the introduction of the Local Education Authority Returns Now Act (LEARN) from Rep. Scott Garrett (R-NJ). What the LEARN Act would do, essentially, is let states declare that they’ll run their own education systems, thank you, and enable state taxpayers to get their education bucks back through a federal tax credit. In other words, LEARN would take away the mighty tool that Washington uses to make states do its unconstitutional bidding — taking tax dollars from state citizens whether they like it or not, and forcing states to follow federal rules to “voluntarily” get some of the money back — and it would make state taxpayers themselves the beneficiaries of independence.

LEARN offers exactly the kind of defensive weapon that states and their taxpayers have needed against Washington for decades. But with the Obama administration pushing federal intervention to unprecedented levels, and even many conservatives using the deceitful “voluntarism” charade to give the feds huge new education powers, it is needed now more than ever.