National School Choice week takes place from January 26 to February 1, and
during this week education freedom activists around the country will be participating
in events highlighting the need for parental control of education. I wholeheartedly
endorse National School Choice Week, as parental control of education is a
prerequisite for a free and prosperous society.
When government usurps control of education from parents, education can easily
become indoctrination. Centralized, top-down models of education are also doomed
to failure as there is no way a bureaucrat in DC can design an education system
capable of meeting the needs of every child in the country. The failure of
centralized education is shown by the correlation between American students'
declining tests scores and the growth of federal control over American schools.
Education reforms that further, or expand, the Department of Education will
prove fruitless. The only effective education reform is to restore parental
control over education.
The key to restoring parental control is to give parents back control over
the education dollar. This means shutting down the Department of Education
and returning the money currently spent promoting schemes like "common core".
Ideally, this would be accomplished by eliminating all federal taxes on American
families. However, if the political support for outright abolition of federal
taxes is not available, education tax credits can also serve as an effective
way of getting control over education back into the hands of the people. Unlike
taxpayer-funded vouchers, private tax credits do not open the door to government
control of education. This is because tax credits allow parents to use their
own money on their children's education, rather than relying on funds provided
by the federal government. Since "he who pays the piper calls the tune," federal
funding of education -- whether in the form of federal grants or taxpayer-funded
vouchers -- inevitably means schools will spend more time trying to please
federal bureaucrats than parents.
One educational model that I am particularly interested in is homeschooling.
Many of the most devoted and most effective advocates of liberty I have worked
with come from homeschooling families. This might be because many homeschooling
families have personal experience with government harassment, ranging from
having to comply with government regulations to being threatened with the loss
of their children for the "crime" of homeschooling. It is ironic that government
would attempt to force homeschoolers to conform to its regulations considering
that homeschoolers constantly out-perform their public school-educated peers.
In order to encourage the growth of homeschooling I have developed my own
homeschool curriculum. The Ron Paul Curriculum consists of a rigorous program
of study in history, economics, mathematics, and the physical and natural sciences.
Older students will also have the opportunity to get practical experience
creating and running their own on-line businesses. Frequent written assignments
will ensure students have the maximum opportunity to develop strong communication
skills.
Giving my strong belief in liberty, the history and economics curriculum will
provide a good grounding in liberty, including the principles of Austrian Economics.
However, the drafters of the curriculum took great care to never sacrifice
intellectual rigor and accuracy.
Education is one of those things that is simply too important to be left to
the government. The best way to ensure quality education is to ensure that
parents have the ability to pick the education option that best fits their
child's unique needs and abilities. Everyone who wishes to see America remain
a free and prosperous society has an interest in parental control of education.
You can find out more information about my homeschool curriculum here.
You can get a copy of my book The School Revolution here.