What’s Wrong with Public Schools Today?
Declining Literacy and Rising Problems
This is a question that thousands of parents and politicians around the nation are demanding an answer to. Of course, Americans ought to be concerned, especially when the raw data shows that student literacy rates are plummeting, immoral curricula are being introduced, and classroom violence is increasing. Indeed, what has gone wrong?
The Forgotten History Challenge
The forgotten history of public schools challenges us to ask a more difficult, controversial question: Have the public schools ever been “right?” To consider that question more fully, read the Education Independence article “The Forgotten History of the Public Schools,” and listen to the conversation between Robert Bortins, Leigh Bortins, and Shawn Ryan on the Shawn Ryan Show.
Why School Choice Policies Fail Families
The “Fund Students Not Systems” Problem
Whether you take the position that public schools were designed to fail families or that they devolved over time, we can all agree that right now, the public school system is not meeting the demands of its students and families. So, we must ask the next question: What are we going to do about the public school system?
Three False Promises of School Choice
School choice advocates answer this question by asserting that the state must take some of the public-school system’s funding and redistribute it to private schools. This idea is summarized in popular slogans like “Fund students, not systems” or “The money should follow the child.” By giving public funding to private schools, they claim three things will happen:
- Private schools will have the resources they need to challenge the public-school monopoly.
- Public schools will be forced to compete in the education market with private schools.
- Private and public schools will benefit from the market competition and shared resources.
In short, advocates of school choice claim that their policies will break the monopoly of state education through market competition. Though this hypothesis sounds wonderful, we know that, far from breaking the monopoly of state education, school choice will only expand this failing model because it perpetuates and expands the root issue with the public school system: the single-payer system problem.
Understanding the Single-Payer Education Problem
How Government Funding Controls Schools
The single-payer system is a system of funding in which the government, whether it be state or federal, is the primary or only means of funding a market. Though this categorization is often used when referring to the healthcare debate, according to its definition, the public school system is also funded using the single-payer system. “Because government education is a single-payer system, accountability processes such as licensing, accreditation, and testing are all trapped in a captured market also known as the education industrial complex” (Misleading School Choice Claims).
When commenting on the similar issue of healthcare, The Heritage Foundation pointed out that a single-payer system is a government-controlled system because with government control, “most private health insurance is either outlawed or restricted, and most public health programs are absorbed into the single, national health insurance program.”
Sweden’s Private School Takeover Warning
Comparable to the control imposed by the US central government on healthcare, Sweden’s government demonstrated the same level of usurpation of private education. When public money flooded the private market, private education itself was restricted and then simply absorbed into the mass of public education, leaving no distinction between the two. With these recent lessons of history, it is interesting that while the Heritage Foundation writes against the single-payer system in healthcare, it is unafraid of expanding this model into the educational market through school choice policies.
Three Ways Single-Payer Systems Destroy Markets
We know that, regardless of the program it is attached to, the single-payer system is dysfunctional and tyrannical because it
- subsidizes the market with public money,
- raises consumer prices through artificial inflation,
- and eliminates market competition between the private and public spheres.
Public schools are owned by the government because they are funded by the government. This is the unavoidable reality of the public school system‚ so why would we seek to perpetuate this funding model by adopting and expanding its disease into the private market?
How School Choice Expands Government Control
Public Money Corrupts Private Education
“While ‘school choice’ programs expand what tax dollars can be spent on, it does not address the underlying single-payer funding model dilemma at the core of this market capture. In actuality, ‘school choice’ expands this toxic funding model beyond the former boundaries of public schools into what were free-market options” (Misleading School Choice Claims).
Regulations Follow Funding Every Time
Thousands of families around the nation have chosen education independence for their children and are experiencing the blessings that come with it. To continue to protect those blessings, parents must understand that independence vanishes when public money is accepted. By its nature, the single-payer system that school choice is based upon will bring all the corrupt regulations, teachings, and problems of the public schools right into whatever education model funds your child’s education.
The Apple from Government’s Tree
Government funding destroys institutional distinction because it traps all businesses, schools, and organizations under its domain of ownership and regulation. As soon as a family eats an apple from the tree of government funding, no matter their intentions, the seed of obligation is planted within them, and it will be difficult to root out.
Real Effects on Homeschool and Private Education
Undermining Homeschool Freedom
“The result is that instead of ending the monopoly, ‘school choice’ expands it” (Misleading School Choice Claims).
Corporatized Education Trap
What are the effects of expanding the single-payer system into education? The result is that all the ills of public education would be ushered into the private sector of education through funding, regulation, and oversight. What’s more, it allows the government to bribe the private industry with public dollars—convincing them to compete for government money rather than their customers.
Social Engineering in Your Classroom
The truth cannot be avoided; when implemented, school choice undermines homeschool freedom, springs the trap of corporatized education, confiscates formerly free states, and invites social engineering in public schools into your child’s classroom.
What parents must understand is that it isn’t just homeschooling at risk—it is the freedom to educate privately! So, how do we avoid or escape this all-pervasive problem of public funding?
Breaking Free from Government Education Control
Independent Funding Creates True Choice
“For the monopoly on education to be broken, independent families, communities, churches, and other non-governmental agencies will need to rise to the occasion and provide superior free-market options that put the taxpayer funded model out of business” (Misleading School Choice Claims).
Public funding corrupts institutions, destroys distinction, and expands the monopoly of government control until it reaches totality. This is a frightening reality, especially for parents who work tirelessly to choose education independence for their children. Thankfully, there is a better way than government funding that has caused society to flourish for ages: independent funding.
Family Responsibility with Community Support
Classical Conversations believes “Education is the responsibility of the family, with support from fellow believers; therefore, we recognize that the financial obligation remains on parents, with support from private, voluntary benefactors.”
Building Free Market Alternatives
With this in mind, let’s return to the question: What are we going to do about the public school system? The answer to this question is not to infect private schools with the public-school problem; rather, it is to independently invest in free market alternatives with your family, neighbors, and community. Choose better than the single-payer system so that your children can escape the perilous public school system and know the value of building a better alternative!
The road may be hard, it may be long, but it is good, and it is free. And it starts with you!
Though the Classical Conversations Scholarship application season has closed, over $50k in scholarships were awarded, demonstrating that people can make a difference in big and small ways, and showing that Education Independence is possible. Join in the effort to support families as they choose education independence by offering gifts or prayers.
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