Competition exists in virtually every facet of our lives, be it excelling in the workplace, fighting for respect and recognition in our community or renting the best apartment in town. Competition among businesses and services in our society serves as a catalyst for higher standards, accountability, quality and success. Why, then, do government funded schools (and our children) remain stuck in the disaster of a monopoly? The shortcomings of our government schools are too serious to ignore, and the resulting need for school choice is too powerful to brush off.
Unfortunately, education has become one of the largest socialized systems that America has to offer. It is expensive, one-size-fits-all, bureaucratic, monopolistic, and far too inflated to offer a meaningful education to many of our nation’s children. It is a system that thrives on under achievement and depends on a powerful, pompous teachers union that provides for its continuance. School choice is needed now more than ever.
The Center for Education Reform describes school choice as a campaign that “re-asserts the rights of the parent and the best interests of child over the convenience of the system, infuses accountability and quality into the system, and provides educational opportunity where none existed before.” Unfortunately, the government could not care less about the concerns or desires of the parents. Based on your address, children are forced to attend a certain school and, of course, are bound by mandatory attendance requirements.
Parents with enough money can send their children to private schools, but what about poorer parents who can’t afford better education for their children? Those kids are stuck in the same disaster of a government school, typically bound by academic under achievement and a complete void of accountability that is caused directly by a carefully constructed dominance of our government schools and a lack of choice. We can thank the teachers unions for the success of our current monopoly.
Vouchers offer a direct solution to the problem of government funded school monopolies. Vouchers allow parents a certain allocation of funds to choose the best school for their children. Under a voucher system, parents can compare schools, look at performance results and talk with other parents about their city’s best public or private schools. Vouchers enable that parent, regardless of their financial capacity, to send their child to better and more qualified educational facilities.
Tens of thousands of families are currently enrolled in privately funded school voucher systems. Many of these families are low-income. Education Week Magazine said voucher programs in Milwaukee, Wisconsin schools has “deeply involved long-alienated parents in their children’s schooling…a powerful retort to educators who have long suggested that parents burdened by social and economic problems could devote but minimal attention to educational issues.“
Yes, vouchers mean that some failing schools may be forced to close down due to a lack of a customer base (students). But, maybe that needs to happen. Why should a failing school remain operating, filling our kid’s minds with a substandard education and, many times, flat out politically correct nonsense? Why do these failing and mismanaged schools deserve to remain in operation and the teachers comfortably employed? Under a system of competition, a private educational interest could purchase that school, reform it, and provide the education that our children deserve within the financial boundaries of each voucher.
A common argument against school vouchers is the suggestion of unequal education. While wealthier students who attend private schools receive a solid, well-rounded education, poorer students who attend government schools get an education far inferior to the private alternative. Essentially, that proves the need for competition among schools. Our children do not deserve second-rate schooling, and vouchers help all parents choose better schools for their kids. School choice should not be restricted only to those who are wealthy enough to pay for it.
Government funded schools still exist, of course, under a voucher system. The difference, though, is the school will then be forced to produce; teachers forced to perform; administrators required to focus on the interests of the child, not the relatively insulated world of politically correct topics that have managed to invade many of our nation’s government funded educational facilities.
The feds would undoubtedly receive nasty retaliation if the government assigned grocery stores to the American people based on their address, or libraries, or gas stations. A policy like that is anti-free market. It is anti-capitalism. It creates a society fraught with dreadfully poor services without a reason to perform. Why, then, are Americans satisfied with our monopoly of government schools? Why should any parent that cares about their child’s future be satisfied with government assigned education?
School choice programs already exist in some states, including Arizona, Arkansas, Wisconsin, Ohio, Florida, Delaware and a few others. These programs allow thousands of low income students attend the educational facilities that they deserve to attend. These states have wisely rejected the notion that our nation’s low income children should remain in failing government schools.
The results of school choice are powerful. The Effectiveness of School Choice: The Milwaukee Experiment documented a clear 6 percentile increase in a child’s reading ability and 11 percentile increase in mathematical comprehension within the state’s school choice program. Lessons from the Cleveland Scholarship Program proved a 5 percentile increase in reading ability and 15 percentile increase in math within Ohio’s program. These are just a couple examples of the positive effect that school choice has with our nation’s children. Providing parents with the power to redirect their own tax dollars to suit their child’s needs, rather than the typical desires of the government, always provide the necessary autonomy parents need to more appropriately control their youngster’s education.
Most of us want what’s best for our children. Naturally, we expect a good return for our dollars spent. At the moment, our government schools are not producing that return. Foreign nations throughout Europe spend less money per child, while testing scores consistently outrank ours. The American people need to demand more from their government. We need to understand that competition among our government and private schools provides the school choice necessary to ensure our nation’s future is in good hands.
Americans typically take slowly to change, but that does not diminish the need for school choice. Demand that our politicians provide for competition among schools and expect a higher standard of education for your children. Our future may just depend on it.