The reform we need: education

Rightsizing government has to begin somewhere, so why not start with the youth?

It’s been over three years now since I concluded my book on the 2009-vintage TEA Party by suggesting version 3.0 should focus on education:

While the group that undertakes this may or may not be known as a TEA Party, the first issue those who care about America should work on is school choice. In order to be able to teach children properly, it may be necessary to take things into one's own hands – yet too many places have a stranglehold on the children by virtue of a subpar public educational system that fails to teach children the benefits of freedom, liberty, and limited Constitutional government. Moreover, there's a lack of opportunity for parents to teach them properly due to economics or state laws that work too much in favor of a single public educational system. After the obvious first step of removing federal influence on education by eliminating the Department of Education and restoring its power to the states closer to where it belongs, we can further break that chain by lobbying the several states to allow educational money to follow the child regardless of whichever public or private option parents demand – including homeschooling. Once that precedent is set, other chains may be worked off as well.

In the state of play in rural Delaware at the moment, I live on the outskirts of a small-town school district that’s probably best known right now for its football team, which won a state championship last season. I’m sure there are great graduates from the school who do fantastic things, but what I know about the school district is how their sports teams fare and that a lot of my annual property taxes go toward its continued existence. I don’t have any kids or grandkids who go there, but I still donate to their cause every time the tax bill comes around. Moreover, thanks to a judge our property is being reassessed for the first time since it was built upon, so I’m sure the bite will be even greater next time around.

Statewide, the whole school funding issue was enough of a concern that a group of special interests took the state to court and got them to pony up more coin, as if funding was the magic bullet to improve student achievement. Yet there are parents within this school district who pay these taxes to an entity they don’t send their children to, either because the kids go to the local vo-tech school (which is also funded in part via our property tax), they go to a private school, or they are homeschooled. In the latter two cases, the parents pay tax and pay again for schooling. It’s those parents who hear the other side scream about “separation of church and state!” when they advocate for money following the child. You may want to be careful what you wish for though because, unless the money is deemed string-free, funding of private schools can be the camel’s nose inside the tent insofar as state curriculum regulation goes.

I’ve often pondered what a totally free educational system - one where there was no government money involved - would look like, and what I think would happen is that people would gravitate to a private school that may or may not be religious-based. The part that would be hardest to fulfill would be those kids who are academically or mentally challenged, a group who public school advocates claim hold back their achievement test scores and academic progress. “Private schools don’t have to teach these kids,” they claim. But what if there were specialty schools just for them?

One mistake I think the educational establishment has made is that of trying to mainstream all the kids who have this type of issue. The problem with trying to eliminate a stigma these less advantaged kids may never notice by mainstreaming them is that they hold back the rest of the class as teachers who aren’t necessarily trained in dealing with these kids have to take the time to keep those differently-abled children occupied and orderly. All kids have a pace they learn at and a capability they can achieve, and there should be a place they would be able to succeed on their own terms. The same goes for the kids who are brilliant: shouldn’t there be a place where they can be challenged daily instead of being bored by teachers who teach to the 15th ranked kid in the 20-person class?

It’s just up to parents to create the demand for these educational endeavors. And something that came to my e-mail from the most interesting of sources, the Indivisible movement that represents the most loony of the far left (and is really in on the political grift) alerted me to one such attempt:

If you haven't heard, Republicans expanded Arizona's school voucher program, and now Turning Point founder Charlie Kirk is starting his own schools to give kids a unique, world-class education in racist, homophobic, and far-right ideology -- and he’ll do it on the taxpayer’s dime. Charlie's opening the doors to his first school this year and we thought we'd let Arizona parents know with a special ad.

Now I didn’t waste my time watching the ad, but I did go see what the fuss is all about. Here’s what the first Turning Point Academy aims to do:

We are excited to announce an amazing opportunity that God has given Dream City Christian School, which is to collaborate with Turning Point Academy (a project of Turning Point USA) to revolutionize K-12 education in Arizona. Both organizations are focused on raising a generation of courageous, spirit filled, patriotic, principled leaders ready to impact their community, country, all for the Kingdom and liberty. This is an ideal collaboration that aligns with our mission to prepare our students to live and thrive in an ever-changing world.

Dream City Christian and Turning Point Academy know that in these troubling and uncertain times we are in need of bold teaching and education more than ever.

Damn, I feel threatened. Not. It’s called a choice; parents can send their students there (the school was already in existence, it’s just partnering with TPA now) or they can send them to other public or charter schools. It seems like the TPA is catching flak because it’s right over the target.

One final point: parents and teachers used to be on the same team, and we should make it so that they are again. To do that, however, we need to loosen the bond between the teachers and their unions – not to erode the teachers’ right to collectively bargain on a school or school district level for better wages, benefits, and working conditions, but to reset the relationship between parents, teachers, and local school boards across the state. School board elections this fall around the country will determine the direction many of our school systems will go, so it’s important to see where these candidates stand on needed reforms.

Parents want their children to have a well-rounded education in classical subjects like reading, writing, history, and math but have schools cooperate with the parents on moral lessons to be taught rather than have things be hidden. And if they can’t receive that from the local public school district, then parents should have the right to opt out to a public or private school of their choice – even homeschool the child if that’s their wish.

The Book of Proverbs says, “Train up a child in the way he should go: and when he is old, he will not depart from it.” Those who would indoctrinate our children, while not acknowledging these words come from the Bible, would still nod their heads and agree with the saying in principle. It’s our job as parents to make our local schools conform to a worldview based on sound, time-tested moral principles to provide the best education possible for our kids.