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Conservative Candidates Take Aim at Federal K-12 Role

Sharron Angle, a former substitute public school teacher who also taught in a one-room K-12 Christian school, speaks to supporters after winning the Nevada Republican U.S. Senate primary election race on June 8 in Las Vegas. Angle will face Sen. Harry Reid, D-Nev. in November.

—Isaac Brekken/AP

By Alyson Klein

The conservative currents roiling the 2010 midterm election season bring with them a new group of Republican congressional candidates who are outspoken about their desire for a limited federal role in education policy and funding.

For many, the prime target is the $787 billion American Recovery and Reinvestment Act, the economic-stimulus program passed by Congress in February 2009, which provided some $100 billion for public education.

And in some cases, candidates have taken a page from a decades-old conservative playbook, pushing policies that would strengthen the rights of parents to home-school their children—and even urging the abolition of the U.S. Department of Education, a position once favored by...