|
 At the heart of the ongoing hot debate over school choice is
the question of how involved government should be in K-12 education. The data is
clear that private schools provide a superior education to that of
government-run schools. Education scholar James Tooley makes that case in
"Really Good Schools: Global Lessons for High-Caliber, Low-Cost Education." He
argues that “reducing the involvement of government in education can (1) reduce
the size of government overall and hence the potential for corruption; and (2)
reduce the potential for governments to use education as a means of domination,
coercion, oppression, and patronage.”
Corrupt Government Control
The corrupting power of government is an issue too seldomly discussed in the
context of public education. The problem is this: A corrupt government will use
its control of the education of its future adult citizens for its own political
ends at the expense of the best interests of its people. Authoritarian or
totalitarian countries come to mind – e.g., the Soviet Union or China. But it
can occur in a democracy as well – where government power over schools allows
them to control the content of the curriculum and thereby manipulate the beliefs
of its future electorate. Tragically, America’s traditional public schools are
increasingly moving in this direction – teachers unions are working hand-in-hand
with Democrat policymakers to use their unbridled power over schools to push
radical agendas in classrooms, grooming children for left-wing loyalties.
At the core of this corruption is the intent to deprive the children of our
nation of the education needed to develop critical thinking skills and the
ability to evaluate facts and draw their own conclusions. Polarizing political
agendas take priority over robust academic instruction. In essence, public
schools have replaced teaching students how to think with teaching students what
to think. As Tooley explains, “Those with influence and power over education
have interests different from ‘the public good.’” Quickly vanishing are the days
of civil discourse, balanced intellectual debate, and free speech – and not just
at higher education institutions but on K-12 campuses as well.
to top of second column] |
The corruption especially plays out in how U.S. history is presented. The 1619
Project’s cynical and counter-factual narrative that slavery, rather than
freedom, was the central motivating principle of the American Founding is being
swiftly implemented in school curriculums. Anti-American ideologies are
promoted, teaching children to have contempt for our nation and even its
principles of liberty and justice. Based on doctrines of Critical Race Theory,
students are labeled and divided into groups as oppressors and oppressed, not
based on their actions and attitudes, but chiefly on their skin color. Academic
standards are removed in the name of promoting a redefined “equity,” which
replaces equal opportunity with demands for equal outcomes. Diversity and
inclusion no longer mean respecting individuals and treating people fairly but
stripping the rights and protections from the vast majority to cater to the
demands for special privileges for select groups.
Education Emancipation
Look at history and even our present-day world, and a prevalent theme is that
government control both stifles education and suppresses freedom. The remedy, as
Tooley terms it, is education emancipation, with free-market education replacing
government control of schools. And this free-market approach returns control to
where it belongs – parents.
As our public schools continue to teach radical ideologies while failing to
educate over 70% of students with basic academic competencies, the urgency for
education emancipation is dire. Private education is education by the people,
for the people. We need that now more than ever.
Keri D. Ingraham is a Fellow at Discovery Institute and Director of the
Institute’s American Center for Transforming Education. This article is part two
of a three-part series. Part Three will propose a path forward through the
development of low-cost private schools by education entrepreneurs.
 |
