A Letter: End Governmental Control of Education

A Letter: End Governmental Control of Education

Thomas Allen

[Editor’s note: The following is a letter written in 1989 to the editor of The Franklin Times.]

    If President Bush hopes to solve the problems of public education by allowing parents to send their children to “schools of choice” and giving parents, teachers, and local administrators more say, he will be disappointed. Even Mr. Ruth’s suggestion of electing school board members and county commissioners who are leaders instead of wimps and eradicating the incompetents will not solve the problems of public education. They will not work because the problem is governmental control of education.
    People have been free for years to choose which post office to use for their postal services. Such free choice has not solved the problems with the post office. (If switching post offices were a solution, The Franklin Times could solve its mail delivery problem by going to a different post office.) It is not going to solve the problems with public education. Competing buildings in the public school system will be no more effective in solving the problems with public schools than it has been with the post office.
    The solution to the failure of public education is to depoliticize it by abandoning socialism. Under the present socialistic system of governmental monopoly in education, failure is rewarded, and success is penalized. The more public schools fail to educate students, the more money they receive. As long as public schools remain a governmental agency, this will always be so. In a governmental bureaucracy, which is what the public school system is, success is determined by the size of the budget and number of employees. It is not determined by the product, educated children. In fact, public schools have little incentive to educate children. To educate children is to their detriment. Bureaucracies grow by having crises. If public schools were producing adequately educated children, then the clamor for increased school budgets would wane. The failure of education in this country can never be solved until socialism is abandoned.
    Under a private school system, success is rewarded, and failure is penalized. Those schools that succeed in educating students prosper. Those schools that fail to educate students go out of business. (Although there are numerous private schools in this country, there is still a public school monopoly because parents of children in private schools and even people who have no children must pay tribute to the public school system.)
    A private school system solves many of the problems of public schools that go beyond adequately educating children. It solves the problem of Bible reading and prayer, creationism versus evolution, sex education, and many other controversial issues.
    Because the public school system is a governmental agency, it politizes education. Thus, education becomes a political contest where the winner takes all, and the loser gets nothing. When fundamental Christians control the public school system, bible reading and prayer are in. When the agnostics and atheists control the public school system, bible reading and prayer are out. Under the public school system, large segments of the population are forced to support the indoctrination of children with values with which they disagree. Large segments are also denied the right of having their children taught values in public schools with which they agree. (Does anyone really believe that under a “school of choice” program that any public school will be allowed to indoctrinate students in Christian dogma?)
    Under a private school system, these problems are avoided. Parents choose the values their children are to be taught and pay the school of their choice to teach them. They are not forced to pay for the teaching of concepts with which they disagree as they presently do.
    The solution to educational problems in this country is to replace the socialistic monopolistic public school system with a free market private school system.
    [The above does not discuss the use of vouchers for private schools. Such a program would be disastrous and effectively end private schools. They would become no more than charter schools and would have to kowtow to governmental bureaucrats for their money. Moreover, I am amazed that the public education establishment still objects to vouchers for private school. A voucher program will end up like every other governmental aid or subsidy program. It will give the government absolute control of private schools accepting vouchers, albeit through the back door. Everyone should know by now that one dollar of governmental money means 100 percent of governmental control once the victim becomes addicted to the “free” governmental money.]

Copyright © 1989, 2022 by Thomas C. Allen.

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