Michael Badnarik on Education Libertarian Party nominee for President

Deregulate the schools so private solutions can work

Establishment politicians say that the solution is more money and higher taxes. Yet, private institutions, which spend half of what public schools do, graduate a larger percentage of their students with higher levels of academic achievement.

Today bureaucrats decide when children will attend school, how long they will attend, who will teach them; and what they will learn. Parents and teachers should make these decisions.

The schooling of the next generation is too important to leave in the hands of politicians and bureaucrats. If you elect me as your president, I will put the education of our youth back into the hands of parents and teachers through deregulation.

Federal government should not be involved with education

A: I've read the Constitution many times. No matter how I read it-forward, backward, upside down or with my Captain Liberty Secret Decoder Ring-I can't find anything in it that empowers the federal government to be involved in education. And since the federal government got involved in education, our children have slipped from first to 29th place in terms of literacy, numeracy and other measurements of educational excellence. The No Child Left Behind Act is just another extension of the policies that have destroyed American education. As president, I propose to get the federal government out of education, and I hope that the states will substantially privatize it as well. That's the only way to get back to our position of preeminence in learning."