Do you support universal basic income? Universal healthcare? What about universal school choice?
Last year, Robert Bortins, CEO of Classical Conversations, and other advocates of education independence asked these very questions to a crowd of conservative thought leaders.
As expected, the conservatives were against both universal basic income and universal healthcare. But when it came to school choice, they were quick to carve out an exception.
Is school choice really different, in principle, from universal basic income and healthcare policies? Is it a conservative policy? It is our belief that universal school choice is NOT a conservative policy because it has the same objectives and economic model as welfare programs that depend on wealth redistribution.
Universal School Choice Is a Welfare Program
Welfare, in simple terms, is a government program that provides eligible individuals or families with goods and services paid for by public funding. School choice meets this definition because it is a government program that provides eligible students or families with public funds to pay for the individual educational needs of students and families.
With these definitions in mind, how is school choice different or more conservative than programs like Medicaid or Medicare?
Universal School Choice Relies on Wealth Redistribution
How is school choice funding collected and distributed? School choice programs rely on the government collecting taxes to redistribute them from those who earned them to those who did not. While many families pay into the state’s education budget through taxes, they are not covering the whole cost of their family’s piece of the school choice pie. This is where the redistributive model is leveraged; to take from those who have earned to give to those who have not.
Conservatives, when considering almost any other topic, recognize that a system rooted in Marxist wealth redistribution cannot be helpful or harmless. It will lead to increased taxes, fraud, and prices. Why should school choice be an exception? We must not allow this socialist funding model to poison the educational free market through school choice programs.
What About Generosity?
“For the poor shall never cease out of the land: therefore, I command thee, saying, Thou shalt open thine hand wide unto thy brother, to thy poor, and to thy needy, in thy land” (Deuteronomy 15:11 KJV).
All throughout scripture, Christians are commanded to give to the poor. But there is an important distinction we must make concerning generosity.
God commands Christians to give their own resources to those in need. He does not give the government the authority to take resources from its citizens to give to others. In fact, a key role in the jurisdiction of government is to uphold justice. Taking money by force is an injustice that is forbidden by the Ten Commandments and throughout the canon of scripture.
So, while we ought to show generosity towards the poor, the method by which school choice policies do this, forced redistribution, is not generosity at all.
The Solution Is Not Another Government Program
As Deuteronomy indicates, poverty is something this world will always suffer from, and the education sphere is not exempt from this problem. There are many families in America struggling to cover the costs of their educational needs. The solution is not another government program; the solution is the true charity of Christians and citizens who are free to voluntarily give their own resources.
Conservatives recognize that welfare programs enslave people to government assistance and disparage a culture of generosity through compulsory taxation. So instead of expanding this model of state dependency and false generosity into the realm of private education, let’s choose education independence!
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If you or someone you know requires financial assistance to pay for their children’s education, be sure to explore the Classical Conversations Scholarship Fund with GiveSendGo to see if you are eligible to receive privately donated and distributed scholarships.
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