Slippery slope arguments usually aren’t persuasive for several reasons. Most importantly; in the winter, slippery slopes are fun. Also, we need to know how slippery the slope is as well as how steep. At the bottom of the slope, what’s there? We like grassy fields. Sometimes there’s a barbwire fence and a highway. The Department of Education is not enumerated in [1] Article I section 8 of the Constitution where it should be to be legitimate. It was part of the vast general welfare clause of Art.I §8 in a department called Department of Health, Education, and Welfare. Under Jimmy Carter, the cabinet level position was created as well as a new bureaucracy. It has only gotten worse from there. Federal dollars (aka yours and mine) are given to states and school districts as bribes, no different than highway money. Which brings us to our fun fact; in fiscal year 2009, the federal government will spend [2] $159,400,000,000 on education. And no, that does not include all the money you pay at the local level where it is supposed to be. That $160 billion came from your community, went to Washington D.C., and theoretically, comes back to be added to the money collected from home-owner’s taxes, sales taxes, and a host of other local taxes that go more or less directly to the school districts. Starting with an ambiguous clause in the Constitution, and “for the children,” creating a massive program for bribing local governments is hardly consistent with letting people make their own decisions.  That slippery slope is one scary ride.

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