Why Government Doesn't Work: on Education

Teaching non-academic topics is cause of declining SATs

Learning, as measured by Scholastic Aptitude Test (SAT) scores, steadily declined throughout the 1960s and 1970s. [I attribute this to] the federal government’s heavy hand transforming the public schools and the private schools as they became dependent on it. Yesterday’s schools focused on reading, writing, arithmetic, history, and geography. Today’s schools spend much more time teaching children:
• To be citizens of the world
• To be sensitive to people who are different than themselves
• To pester their parents to recycle cans and bottles
• To understand how western civilization destroyed a peaceful North American continent
• To report their parents if they catch them using drugs
• To practice safe sex.

Importance of education no reason for govt control

Imagine what it would be like. The food stores would become what the schools have become. Political battles would decide which foods are available. If you don’t like the choices, you’d have to attend “food board” meetings. Food would become more and more expensive, even as the quality deteriorated. And don’t get caught praying in a supermarket.

Now let’s reverse the picture. Imagine instead that schools were operated like today’s supermarkets. Most school systems would offer a variety of approaches to any one subject-just as a supermarket offers a variety of brands for any one food item. And if you didn’t like what one school offered, or if you didn’t like the way your child was treated, you could patronize another school.

Vouchers better than public schools; no govt is best

Feds out of education and states out of education

There are two important changes that must be made to improve education:
1. The federal government must get completely out of education. It has made a bad situation much worse. And it has no Constitutional authority to meddle in education in any way- even if it were capable of helping.
2. Federal taxes must be lowered dramatically so that parents have the ability to finance their children’s education directly.

Once we make these reforms, it will be up to the people in each state to decide what educational system is best.
• Some states will revert to the kind of education provided before the federal government took over-with public schools that reflect local values and circumstances.
• Some states will adopt a voucher system, in order to enhance freedom of choice and lessen dependence on government.
• And some states will withdraw from education altogether-reducing taxes so parents can buy whatever education they want for their children.