There’s No Such Thing as a Free Lunch
Think of “free” money like cheese in a mousetrap. It looks and smells delicious. But as any Economics 101 student can tell you, there is no such thing as a free lunch. The cheese is not free at all. In fact, in the context of universal government (or taxpayer) funding for education, it is there to lure in unwitting homeschoolers and private schools for the kill.
This is not speculation. The United Nations Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organization (UNESCO) put the plan in an explosive Global Education Monitoring report in 2022. The essence of the document on regulating so-called “non-state education providers” is simple: Give them “free” taxpayer money, then force them to submit.
This model for control has already been tested successfully in multiple countries, starting in Europe and then moving outward to Canada, Australia, South Africa, and more. And as more state governments open up the school choice funding floodgates, the independence of private schools and home education is in the crosshairs.
Of course, most of the legislators, activists, voters, and parents seeking taxpayer funding for school choice are well-intentioned. But just like President Ronald Reagan warned, “the nine most terrifying words in the English language are, ‘I’m from the government, and I’m here to help.’” Conservatives once understood this danger. It’s time to rekindle that awareness.
The “Human Right” to Education
UN Redefines Education as a “Human Right”
One of the most insidious efforts to undermine the independence of private and home education is the plot to redefine it all as public education and a “human right.” From the United Nations and UN bureaucracies to leftwing media outlets and even some of the most influential Republican financiers of school choice, that push is now going into overdrive.
UN Human Rights Council Demands Education Regulation
At the international level, the UN has become increasingly bold in demanding government control of all education. In 2015, the UN Human Rights Council, dominated by dictatorships and kleptocrats, claimed governments have an obligation to “monitor” and “regulate” private education. All students must learn from the same “standards,” the Council said.
Just this year, UN Special Rapporteur on the Right to Education Farida Shaheed investigated U.S. education and concluded that the feds need to do more to control education, including private schools. “The loss of federal oversight could deepen inequities,” she claimed, adding that the U.S. government was obligated under international law to impose the UN agenda.
After attacking state efforts to protect children from porn, LGBT extremism, race-mongering, and more, Shaheed made clear that control must apply to private education too. Governments must ensure “that standards are outlined that all private sector providers must adhere to in accordance with the right to quality education,” she said.
Citing the “Abidjan Principles on the human rights obligations of States to provide public education,” Shaheed also said governments must “regulate private involvement in education” and “limit undue influence of private actors.” Naturally, private actors would include parents, businesses, and churches.
“The Special Rapporteur strongly encourages the federal Government and all States to consider expressly recognizing education as a fundamental human right for everyone,” Shaheed continued. “The right to education requires States [governments] to deliver free, quality, public education for everyone.”
Note the references to human rights, quality, and everyone. Those words were chosen very deliberately. And the UN’s understanding of “quality” would not align with the views of most Americans.
Universal Declaration Mandates UN-Aligned Education
Understanding the UN’s vision of “human rights” is important here, too. Consider Article 26 of the Universal Declaration of Human Rights, the foundational UN instrument on the subject. In addition to mandating compulsory education, the agreement makes clear where this is all going. Education, it reads, “shall further the activities of the United Nations.”
What does that mean for those who, like many parents and Christian schools, do not “further the activities of the United Nations” in the education of children? Well, they are violating the “human rights” of those children. Violations of “human rights” are routinely punished in kangaroo courts such as the International Criminal Court. Parents, beware.
Domestic Efforts Mirror Global Plotting
Propaganda in favor of this nightmarish vision is escalating in the United States, too. The far-left magazine Scientific American, for example, recently demanded that the federal government impose national regulations on home education. “Education is a basic human right,” the magazine declared, echoing UN rhetoric.
Former U.S. Secretary of Education Betsy DeVos, one of the leading advocates of government-funded choice, has been clear about her vision as well. Speaking to young conservatives in 2019, she publicly declared that because “every place a student learns is ultimately of benefit to the public,” all education should be considered “public education.”
If all education is considered public, it follows naturally and obviously that the public must have a say in it. And lest anyone be tempted to believe the DeVos plans to restore classical Christian education, a brief look at the globalist G20 Education Agreement she signed in Argentina, promoting “sustainable development,” should put that notion to rest.
UNESCO Report
The strategy for bringing home education and private schools under government control—making them all public—was laid out clearly in the UNESCO report mentioned above. It is, in short, to use government funding to force “non-state education providers” into the government control grid. This includes tests, standards, accountability, equity, and more.
Once the providers are taking government money, the government can and should enforce “centralization and control of the school choice and admissions procedures,” UNESCO argued. Under the guise of “evaluation” and “accountability,” the agency also calls for “integration of private subsidized schools into the monitoring and evaluation framework in place for the public sector.”
The UN report, titled “Regulating Public-Private Partnerships, governing non-state schools: An equity perspective,” claims there is a need for the government to establish “appropriate governance and regulatory frameworks” over private schools. “Regulatory reforms must clearly define what public interest in education is and fix the rules under which private providers may participate,” the UN argued.
“…the schools must obey the government regulations once funding starts flowing.”
While owners of private schools will still be allowed to make a profit, the schools must obey the government regulations once funding starts flowing. That means schools will not be exempt, the report says, from “complying with centrally defined curricula, learning standards or student admissions criteria, among other public regulations.” Testing will be one of the key means for enforcing compliance, according to UNESCO.
In a shocking display of hubris in line with the worst impulses of totalitarians everywhere, the UN also claims in the report that the State, not parents or families, “remains the duty bearer of education as a public good.” Even more astounding, parents are dismissed by UNESCO in the report as “vested interests” to be overcome by the government.
The U.S. Situation
State School Choice Programs Impose Growing Restrictions
Dozens of American state governments have already adopted some form of government-funded school choice. More are on the verge of doing so. Virtually every state that has adopted government-funded school choice is imposing at least some restrictions and controls on recipients. More control will inevitably follow.
GAO Report Reveals Testing Requirements for Choice Schools
This was true even a decade ago, according to the Government Accountability Office (GAO). “Voucher and ESA programs generally placed some requirements on participating private schools, according to GAO’s review of program documents, survey responses, and interviews with program officials,” the agency said after looking into the matter.
The GAO report, which was published in 2016, pointed to, among other regulations and requirements, mandatory government testing for students at choice schools—the exact mechanism UNESCO and Bill Gates have said would be critical to enforcing compliance. And those are just the camel’s nose under the tent.
Arizona’s Universal Choice Model Faces New Regulations
Arizona became the first state to approve universal government-funded choice. It has been cited as a model by pro-choice lawmakers from Texas to Florida and beyond. And yet, it did not take long before the state’s Democratic governor began publicly demanding new regulations, government-school standards for private schools, and more.
Other Republican states that have approved similar programs have also instituted controls, including regular testing, restrictions on what vendors can be used, mandatory reporting to the government, and more. Even in the most conservative states, such as Mississippi, top education officials have declared that private schools taking public money must obey.
Meanwhile, a new federal school choice tax credit program was enshrined into law in the “Big, Beautiful Bill.” The version that originally passed the House contained language forbidding government restrictions on the recipients, while contradicting that by mandating that recipients obey federal statutes such as the Individuals with Disabilities in Education Act (IDEA).
Unfortunately for home educators and private schools, the final bill that was signed into law removed even the weak language purporting to prohibit government regulation. And under the state opt-in model, federal and state authorities will have broad leeway to regulate those receiving the funding.
Warning
Advocates of universal government funding for education love to argue that they are fighting for educational freedom. Where has government funding of anything ever led to more freedom? Did it lead to more freedom when Christian hospitals established to honor Christ and serve the needy got in bed with the feds? Did U.S. Department of Education funding for state and local education produce more freedom? Of course not. It led to control.
True freedom comes from independence. To salvage what is left of educational liberty—and to eventually expand it—Americans must go back to personal responsibility and reliance on family and the church. The more the government gets involved, the more freedom retreats.
It is time to go back to what worked: Parents must be responsible for education, not the state.
To read more of Alex Newman’s works, visit The Liberty Sentinel, or read his book, Indoctrinating Our Children to Death.
Written by:
