The notion that local governments should have almost total
monopoly control over our children's education is not only
unjust and tyrannical, it is also absurd. Children need
education, to be sure, but they also need food, clothing, and
shelter. The same poor or irresponsible parents who
public-school apologists claim will not educate their children
without compulsion, might not feed, clothe, or shelter them
either.
Yet, we do not see local governments owning and operating
supermarkets, department stores, or apartment houses. Instead,
government food stamp or rent subsidy programs give temporary
financial help to those parents who are too poor to provide for
their children.
When it comes to education, however, instead of giving vouchers
or other temporary loans or subsidies to poor families so they
can pay for their children's education, we've created a
government-owned-and-operated monstrosity called public
schools. As we noted earlier, millions of parents now pay for
private pre-schools, kindergartens, and colleges for their
children in a vibrant, competitive, education free-market.
Most parents who can't afford college tuition for their kids
usually apply for student loans either from a bank or a
government agency. Yet for 1st through 12th-grade education,
suddenly government must step in, treat all parents like idiots
or potential child abusers, and own and operate all the schools.
To more fully understand the absurdity of this system, imagine
for a moment that well-intentioned government authorities want
to make sure that every child has enough to eat, that no child
gets "left behind" when it comes to food. To insure this goal,
local governments across the country take control of all
supermarkets and grocery stores in your town.
Under this new system, bureaucrats now own and operate all food
stores, and store workers become tenured civil-service employees
who can't be fired. Your local government then passes a new
"food tax" to pay for these stores and employees' salaries.
This tax is added to your current real-estate tax bill. If you
don't pay this new tax, local government officials can and will
foreclose on your home.
Also under this system, suppose the local Food Board forces you
and your family to buy from a particular store. The store clerks
know you have to shop in their store, and that they can't be
fired. As a result, they soon become indifferent to their
customer's needs. The store managers can't be fired, so they
manage the stores badly. The stores can't go out of business
because they are supported by taxes, so they give you poor
service and rotten food. If you want to change stores, you have
to ask permission from your local Food Board bureaucrat, who
will usually refuse your request. Also, changing food stores
doesn't accomplish much because they are all the same-all owned
and operated by the same government food monopoly.
If this system sounds absurd to you, if you would scream bloody
murder at having to put up with such a system simply to buy
food, why do you put up with such a system when it comes to
your children's' education?
Also, as we noted earlier, those we elect to office are our
agents, not our masters. They derive their powers from our
consent. They are supposed to represent our interests and
follow our instructions. Politicians, bureaucrats, and school
authorities therefore have as much right to dictate how we
educate our children as a real estate agent has to dictate who
we sell our house to and at what price.
The following passage from Isabel Paterson's book, The God of
the Machine, sums up the proper response to local governments
and school authorities who think they have the right to dictate
how you educate your child:
"The most vindictive resentment may be expected from the
pedagogic profession for any suggestion that they should be
dislodged from their dictatorial position; it will be expressed
mainly in epithets, such as reactionary, at the mildest."
Nevertheless, the question to put to any teacher moved to such
indignation, is: Do you think nobody would willingly entrust
his children to you or pay you for teaching them? Why do you
have to extort your fees and collect your pupils by compulsion?
Article Copyrighted © 2005 by Joel Turtel.
Source: http://www.ArticlePros.com/author.php?Joel Turtel
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