Education: The REAL Solution
For decades, complaints abound regarding the inequities in the public school systems across America. Each state
governs administration and distribution of funds uniquely, though in many states local property tax revenues
directly fund the school systems of which they're a part, further exaggerating the inequities in the monies
available to each district, school, and for each student. These unequal funding is often blamed for perpetuating
poverty and continuing the cycles of despair and failure in those neighborhoods where such despair and failure
prosper today. Social equalizers will take this analysis one step further, claiming that these poverty-stricken
neighborhoods are the direct result of monies flowing to other neighborhoods and schools.
Let's set the stage for our solution with a few premises. First, we are absolutely against a resolution that
puts the federal government in charge of any aspect of local education, as there is no constitutional power
granted the federal government for that purpose and no precedent that the federal government would better
administer education on a national level than it is currently administered by states and communities (reference
the government's administration of Social Security, Medicare, Cash For Clunkers, every other program). Second,
we do NOT agree with the idea that school funding is zero-sum. Monies flowing into some school districts, in our
view, are not relevant to monies that COULD be flowing into the less-advantaged districts (this is actually the
fundamental flaw in the acceptance of socialism, but that's for another discussion).
We finally do not accept the notion that education as a public function, administered by state and local
governments, makes sense. We believe this for the simple reason that government administration of a service
is never done as efficiently, as economically, and with as much quality as that same service is administered
in the private sector. We challenge you to disagree with that assertion.
Therefore, we assert that the key problems with public education in America are that:
- Competition is non-existent. Similar to the lack of competition in health care insurance, there is
little to no competition in education. Students choose from what's available to them, often a free public
option and a few private, but much more expensive, schools that are out of reach financially to them. Given
these options, the student will generally land in the all-accepted free public school, a catch-all destination
disinterested in whether or not the student is there and is in fact better off if the student is NOT there
(since educating a student takes money out of the school's funds).
- School is free. Well, it isn't, but it often FEELS free, since funds are not paid directly to the
school the child is attending by the child's parents. The bottom-line is, "free" is not embraced, appreciated,
or well-kept -- especially in neighborhoods where residents are used to receiving freebies such as food stamps,
rent subsidies, public clinics, and annual tax refunds, having never paid a dime of federal income tax. Public
education becomes perceived as a right whose burden is on the state as opposed to a responsibility whose burden
is on the parents and students.
To solve this problem, we must return the power of education to parents and students. This would take the following
form:
- Eradicate the public school system. Yes, you read that correctly: end public schools as we know them.
Public school is analogous to the propsed health care reform "public option", the same option so many Americans
are so strongly against, and with good reason -- the "public option" today, whether it be Medicare or the Post
Office or the DMV, is generally regarded as a subpar product with very poor service. Makes you think of the
lower-end public schools, doesn't it?
- Eradicate local property taxes. It logically follows that if the public option of education is dead,
gone as well are the horrific and always-rising property taxes collected to fund it. Allow homeowners to keep
that money and landlords to retain it as well, which in a competitive real estate rental market trickles down to
tenants in the form of significantly lower rents, putting that money back in renters' pockets.
- Retain the mandate that all children are required to go to school. This is one of the few sweeping
mandates that governments have set that the public at large almost unanimously agrees on, for good reason --
a basic education is required to get through life. This mandate should remain in place.
- Sit back, and watch the private schools pop up. Without a public option, private schools will
spring to life to compete for the business of parents looking for the right school for their children. Schools
of any conceivable type will crop up: religious ones, science-oriented ones, sports-oriented ones, and
trade-related ones, among many others. The only common requirement across schools is that they meet the basic
curriculum standards set out by the state. And much as different department stores today cater to different
shoppers, the schools will do the same: lower-end schools will surface to serve lower-income neighborhoods, and
schools will range up to "luxury-brand" institutions for the "rich kids."
Unfair? You could argue the point,
but can you seriously also argue that the range of schools available are any MORE fair? The bottom line is,
private schools, even the lower-end "Walmart"-level schools, will outperform public schools in bad neighborhoods
today because they have to make money. What incentive do those bad neighborhood schools have today?
None.
- The state shall provide an annual subsidy to each family with school-aged children equal to the lowest
tuition offered within 10 miles of the family's home, multiplied by the number of school-aged children.
Because education is a legal mandate, this subsidy must also be provided to ensure that financial hardship is
not a reason that children do not attend school. The parents are free, of course, to throw in more of their
money to send their children to a different school, but this is the parents' prerogative.
In this system responsibility for choosing the right schools lies with the parents. Accountability for
providing the right education lies with the schools. And short of the occasional audit, little involvement
lies with the state -- exactly as a successful system SHOULD work.
- HQ staff
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