Educational policy should not be about ideology. Once the vast majority of the population has come to the conclusion that the state should be involved in education, there is only be one question left to ask: What is best for the children?
Unfortunately, this is a difficult question to answer, not because no one has an answer, but rather because everyone has a different answer and everyone is sure that they are right. Since there is no unanimous decision, the state gets to decide what our children learn in our current public school system.
There are many arguments surrounding the inadequacy of the current system. However, there is only one issue that truly matters from a libertarian perspective. Parents, not the state, should decide what and how their kids learn at school. Just as it would be inappropriate to force a parent to raise their children a certain way, it is inappropriate to force children to learn things that their parents don't want them to learn while they are in school.
This problem tends to affect the poor more than the wealthy because the poor have fewer educational options. Wealthy parents can easily afford private education. The system as it stands now allows wealthy parents to choose what and how their children learn while poor parents are forced to relinquish this choice to the state. Why should the rich have a greater say in how their children are raised? If taxpayers are going to be paying for education anyway, we should be paying for a system that allows choice for all.
The government should redistribute the money paid in education taxes to parents in the form of school vouchers so that they can decide how their children are educated. School vouchers are the most effective way to enhance choice within the educational system. With school vouchers, the state provides a certain amount of money for education per pupil. Where that child attends school is up to the parent. This has been enacted on a small scale in Milwaukee and Cleveland with positive results in both achievements of students and parental satisfaction.
Kids are being educated regardless of their socioeconomic background and, even better, the best schools are no longer reserved only for people who have the cash to pay for them. Now even poor students can attend prestigious private schools.
The solution to this problem is to ensure that all kids currently in the public system are able to transfer to private schools. This way no child is left behind. Opponents of school choice argue that there are not enough private schools to accommodate so many students. They are correct. However, if vouchers are implemented, then demand for private schools will rise. As any economics student knows, when demand rises, supply does, too. Eventually the market finds equilibrium. If vouchers are implemented within several years, there will be enough private schools to accommodate all children. There is no reason for a single child to be stuck in a failing educational system.
Erin Wildermuth is a senior in the School of International Service and a libertarian columnist for The Eagle.
