The president has relentlessly called for a more extensive—and expensive—federal role in education. Here’s just one example:

The human mind is our fundamental resource. A balanced Federal program must go well beyond incentives for investment in plant and equipment. It must include equally determined measures to invest in human beings—both in their basic education and training and in their more advanced preparation…. Without such measures, the Federal Government will not be carrying out its responsibilities for expanding the base of our economic… strength.

And if we spend all those new federal dollars on k-12 education, the president promised that “it will pay rich dividends in the years ahead.”

But here’s the strange part: in that same speech, the president made this seemingly ridiculous claim:

Our progress in education over the last generation has been substantial. We are educating a greater proportion of our youth to a higher degree of competency than any other country on earth.

It’s actually not so ridiculous when you learn that the president who said it was John F. Kennedy, in February of 1961. Back then, we really had been making educational progress.

Aside from the ill-fated National Defense Education Act of 1958, the federal government had made no attempt to improve k-12 academic achievement or attainment in the four decades before JFK… and yet, as he noted, American education did in fact improve during that period.

But within a couple of years of JFK’s assassination, Congress passed the Elementary and Secondary Education Act, now known as the No Child Left Behind Act. And in the four plus decades since, the feds have spent roughly $2 trillion trying to improve outcomes and attainment. Over that course of years, both graduation rates and academic achievement at the end of high school have been flat or declining.

Perhaps it could be argued that JFK couldn’t have known better. There was no history showing him what an expensive failure U.S. federal education spending would turn out to be. But the same cannot be said of President Obama, or of those in Congress who continue to tell the public, and presumably themselves, that fed ed. spending is a useful “investment.”

Today, we can look back at a half-century of failed federal education programs. We can think about how much better off the U.S. economy and our children would be if we hadn’t thrown $2 trillion at a calcified school monopoly that cannot spend money efficiently.

And reflecting on that history, perhaps we’ll find the wisdom not to repeat it.

Robert E. Litan, vice president for Research and Policy at the Ewing Marion Kauffman Foundation and senior fellow in Economic Studies at the Brookings Institution, sends along his thoughts on the passing of William Niskanen:

I am honored to join the long list of people who knew Bill and are deeply saddened by his loss. I am also perhaps one of his unlikeliest co-authors. In 1998, Bill and I wrote a little book Going Digital! that is one of only a couple of published collaborations ever between Brookings and Cato. It was written in the early days of the Internet and generally made a “hands off” case for it.

After the book was published, the State Department sponsored a speaking tour for the two of us in Spain. I had an unforgettable experience with Bill on the trip, especially in Barcelona, where after we were picked up the airport, we were warned by the State representative there about gypsy pickpockets in the middle of the city. Sure enough, no later than an hour later as the three of us were walking down one of the main thoroughfares in the City, we were surrounded out of nowhere by a throng of about 15 little people wearing veils – they looked like children but in fact were the very gypsies about whom we had just been warned – making a buzzing sound. In just a few seconds they were gone and about 20 steps later Bill discovered they had taken his wallet (I was fortunate to have been wearing a trench coat, so I was spared). We both then quickly ran after them, and unbelievably, they threw the wallet to the ground – without his cash of course – but with all of his other belongings, credit cards most importantly, intact.

I was in amazement, but Bill took it totally in stride as if we had just been on a Sunday stroll in the park. He was the perfect B type personality, alongside my A(+). And we must have appeared like Mutt and Jeff to everyone everywhere we went (those who know Bill knew his size, and my much smaller physical stature).

So I will always remember Bill as being part of an odd intellectual couple. I had a wonderful time writing the book and speaking about it. The whole experience was a privilege I will always treasure. Bill touched me in a very special way, as I know he did countless others. The world was a better place with him here, and it is worse off now that he is gone.

Thank you, Bill.