| |
| |
|
Politics Information |
|
|
|
The Absurdity of the Public School Monopoly
The notion that local governments should have almost total monopoly control over our children's education is not only unjust and tyrannical, it is also absurd. Children need education, to be sure, but they also need food, clothing, and shelter. The same poor or irresponsible parents who public-school apologists claim will not educate their children without compulsion, might not feed, clothe, or shelter them either. Yet, we do not see local governments owning and operating supermarkets, department stores, or apartment houses. Instead, government food stamp or rent subsidy programs give temporary financial help to those parents who are too poor to provide for their children. When it comes to education, however, instead of giving vouchers or other temporary loans or subsidies to poor families so they can pay for their children's education, we've created a government-owned-and-operated monstrosity called public schools. As we noted earlier, millions of parents now pay for private pre-schools, kindergartens, and colleges for their children in a vibrant, competitive, education free-market. Most parents who can't afford college tuition for their kids usually apply for student loans either from a bank or a government agency. Yet for 1st through 12th-grade education, suddenly government must step in, treat all parents like idiots or potential child abusers, and own and operate all the schools. To more fully understand the absurdity of this system, imagine for a moment that well-intentioned government authorities want to make sure that every child has enough to eat, that no child gets "left behind" when it comes to food. To insure this goal, local governments across the country take control of all supermarkets and grocery stores in your town. Under this new system, bureaucrats now own and operate all food stores, and store workers become tenured civil-service employees who can't be fired. Your local government then passes a new "food tax" to pay for these stores and employees' salaries. This tax is added to your current real-estate tax bill. If you don't pay this new tax, local government officials can and will foreclose on your home. Also under this system, suppose the local Food Board forces you and your family to buy from a particular store. The store clerks know you have to shop in their store, and that they can't be fired. As a result, they soon become indifferent to their customer's needs. The store managers can't be fired, so they manage the stores badly. The stores can't go out of business because they are supported by taxes, so they give you poor service and rotten food. If you want to change stores, you have to ask permission from your local Food Board bureaucrat, who will usually refuse your request. Also, changing food stores doesn't accomplish much because they are all the same-all owned and operated by the same government food monopoly. If this system sounds absurd to you, if you would scream bloody murder at having to put up with such a system simply to buy food, why do you put up with such a system when it comes to your children's' education? Also, as we noted earlier, those we elect to office are our agents, not our masters. They derive their powers from our consent. They are supposed to represent our interests and follow our instructions. Politicians, bureaucrats, and school authorities therefore have as much right to dictate how we educate our children as a real estate agent has to dictate who we sell our house to and at what price. The following passage from Isabel Paterson's book, The God of the Machine, sums up the proper response to local governments and school authorities who think they have the right to dictate how you educate your child: "The most vindictive resentment may be expected from the pedagogic profession for any suggestion that they should be dislodged from their dictatorial position; it will be expressed mainly in epithets, such as reactionary, at the mildest." Nevertheless, the question to put to any teacher moved to such indignation, is: Do you think nobody would willingly entrust his children to you or pay you for teaching them? Why do you have to extort your fees and collect your pupils by compulsion? Joel Turtel is the author of "Public Schools, Public Menace: How Public Schools Lie To Parents and Betray Our Children." Website: http://www.mykidsdeservebetter.com, Article Copyrighted © 2005 by Joel Turtel.
MORE RESOURCES:
Politics - Google News |
|
|
|
RELATED ARTICLES
Predator or Prey; Hunter or the Hunted; Teacher or the Pupil; Winning or Losing? This is a thought on the study of Home and Away Games, The Best Team Always Has the Advantage. Predators and Prey; The Hunters and The Hunted. Gasoline Prices Going Through the Roof OH MAN!Here we go again. I guess now the "proof is in the pudding" and it is time for us to face reality. All Extremists Go To Heaven... Dont They Heaven, Hell, or some sort of Purgatory.I cannot seem to make it to either of the extreme political sides and being a moderate definitely leaves me at least in purgatory if not a perpetual limbo. Michael Moore: The Dumbest People on the Face of the Earth "Fahrenheit 9/11" auteur Michael Moore recently fueled the epidemic of hatred for America by denouncing his own country and his own people to the foreign press. The UK's Mirror printed Mr. So How Far Have We Come? Here are some of the 2001 Anti Terrorist Projects An article in Information Week in January 14, 2002 discussed an interesting subject of tracking terrorists. It talked about tracing of spending by Terrorists. The British Sikh Army Britain has a proud tradition of valiant armed forces and a capable military which has managed to defend these isles effectively for hundreds of years. British Military achievement is well known throughout the world and the bravery and versatility of its soldiers, seamen and airmen is unquestioned and forever stamped in history. A Cheap Holiday in Other Peoples Misery (catching up with Mordechai Vanunu in Israel) One of my favourite pieces of music is the Sex Pistols' classic 'Holidays in the Sun' - a song that begins with the line, 'a cheap holiday in other people's misery'. This would have made a fitting epitaph for my holiday in Israel, except that the $3000 air ticket meant that it wasn't exactly cheap. China Finds Humans to Test Bird Flu Vaccine On, in Qinghai China is serious about breaking into the bio-tech field and has a vaccine to stop H5N1 Bird Flu strain. Recently they admitted over 160 people died and today they now admit it was actually 460 people. Trucking and the Flow of Fuel There are many types of fuels besides that gasoline we put in our cars and use to cruise around. It is only the first that come to mind when we think of fuel; "Gasoline" for my car. The Liberal Solution: Assault a Conservative? Ok, here is what happened: On March 31, 2005, Pat Buchanan, conservative commentator and former presidential candidate, was giving a speech at Western Michigan University when some 24-year-old ding-dong, who apparently did not like what he was hearing, decided the appropriately mature and tolerant behavior would be to attack Mr. Buchanan with a bottle of salad dressing. Are Illegal Mexicans Really Bad for America? I've been thinking again. I know some of my readers regard that as a dangerous thing. UAV Decoy Stategies, Theories and The Modern Art of War Well having studying the need for decreasing America's dependence on Foreign Oil and the advances of the automotive industry such as Fed Ex and UPS along with Eaton and GM. Also studying the efforts of Sunlite Bus in Palm Desert and the recent information on ceramic coatings and problems in Urban Heat, Ozone Levels, Global Warming Issues from NASA and GeoSat efforts and various weather updates and information gathering data efforts to predict thunder storms, Hurricanes, Fires and Tornados we have learned quite a bit. Bill OReilly: You Got This One Wrong! I like Bill O'Reilly. I do. FTC Fixing SPAM? Is the Federal Trade Commission really stopping SPAM? Is the FTC and all of our tax dollars doing any good reducing SPAM? Why do we even bother to pretend? Did the FTC assume that its publicity alone would scare the spammers into quitting? The FTC is quite arrogant in that case. They spent over a year having meetings trying to define what SPAM actually was; then when we ask for a progress report as the SPAM had increased they say: "We are working on it, we need to redefine SPAM. Oil Prices Effect The United States Competitiveness Just because we have been leading the World in innovation and computer intellectual property, expertise and design does not mean we can afford to let our manufacturing dominance continue to depart the US soil. We once made everything here. Pierre Dupont de Nemours After arranging the Armistice that ended or settled outstanding issues after the Revolutionary War Pierre Dupont de Nemours came to join the Royals including the Hapsburgs who were living near Jefferson and other esoteric Merovingians in and around Delaware. He and his family became important armaments manufacturers and it is reasonable to remember what Eisenhower said in his Military-Industrial Complex speech. Rugged Individualism vs Human Nature "Rugged individualism" is actually a euphemism for Thomas Hobbes' baseless concept of man's natural condition as a war of everyone against everyone else. Even different species of wild animals (each of which has its own group soul, as opposed to humans, which have individual souls) cooperate with one another for their mutual benefit, so Hobbes would have had us believe that mankind is inherently more bestial than the beasts, perhaps explaining the name of the pop "music" group known as the Beastie Boys. Chinese Ministry of Information Internet Registration Laws China maybe stopping some of the SPAM coming into the United States by getting tough on Internet users. Currently about 30 percent of all SPAM comes from China. US Government Owes Martha Stewart 1 Billion Dollars The prosecutors in the Martha Stewart Case used testimony from an FBI agent who lied under oath to secure a conviction. The prosecutors knowingly and willfully allowed the FBI agent to tell a lie while he was a witness in the courtroom. Trade Wars, China and Over Regulation At Home We are seeing some trade wars brewing as American trade deficits mount and the money flows moving to China. We see OPEC manipulating our supply a tad and China's thirst for oil increasing, thus furthering the supply issues.
|
| home | site map |
| © 2006 |
