Obama’s education plan suggests we need more federalism

I was reading DRJ’s post over at Patterico about Obama’s new education plan, and was met with yet another reason with why our top-down government is, well, a poor substitute for the represenational democracy the Founders intended. But first, from the AP:

The president… wants schools to add time to classes, to stay open late and to let kids in on weekends so they have a safe place to go.

That’s pretty much it in a nutshell (the rest of the article is full of fluff interviews with kids and an apology (using the traditional definition) for Obama’s statements). The reasonings are based almost entirely on low-income students. Basically, year-round school sessions and staying open until 7 would benefit them far more than high income students, who tend to have higher parental involvement and are more likely to be involved in extra-curricular activities.

Now, I’m not going to argue whether or not this is a good idea for lower income students or if this addresses the root causes, or if we should be doing something else on education, or anything else (read DRJ’s post, or Alex’s post at Race 4 2012, if you’d like some discussion on those topics). Let’s assume, for the moment, that the idea is at least debatable. Let’s also assume, for the moment, that funding for these projects is not an issue (big assumption, I know, but bear with me).