Abolish Government Schools

Public schools are a destructive force incapable of reform

This is my annual back-to-school posting. Throughout history public schools in the USA and worldwide have been used as weapons to enforce government promulgated orthodoxy and to repress dissident minorities. At first, state education was used as a cudgel against minority religions; later it was used to promote war – think Prussia. Now it is used to indoctrinate students in a progressive secular state religion.

Today, public school students are brainwashed in Critical Race Theory, The 1619 Project, DEI, climate madness, wacko environmentalism and gender dysphoria. These are taught as absolute truths and no alternatives are presented. In a 2022 survey by the Manhattan Institute, 80% of students were taught at least some of these concepts. Meanwhile, reading and math are deemphasized and test scores are plummeting.

Public schools take in carefree, eager and joyous children living in the most well off, healthy and multi-cultural society ever known and indoctrinate them to believe they actually inhabit a horribly oppressive country of which they should be ashamed.

School Choice Myths

I have long advocated universal school choice with the money following the child. I used to believe choice would force government schools to become competitive. I now believe public schools are a destructive force incapable of reform and must be abolished. Following are some myths about choice parroted by teachers unions.

• Myth: Choice drains money. Vouchers cost half the per pupil spending of public schools; hence, vouchers increase per pupil money for public schools.
• Myth: Some children may be left behind. This is analogous to asserting that because there are not enough lifeboats for all, everyone must drown.
• Myth: Segregation would increase. Students already are highly stratified by income and race. Choice, not compulsion, does more to bridge divides.
• Myth: The rich benefit. The wealthy already enjoy universal school choice. The poorest among us most need and would benefit from choice.
• Myth: Poor families make bad choices. This is insulting to low-income families. Empirical evidence from existing voucher programs dispels this myth.
• Myth: Voucher schools are unaccountable and unregulated. Private schools are immediately and directly answerable to parents. Regulating them would turn them into the same hell holes parents are desperately fleeing.

The Case for Abolishing Public Schools

Abolishing public schools will reduce school shootings. As gun free zones, public schools are soft targets. They create hordes of disaffected students; it is not shocking some turn to violence. With choice, parents could select schools with strong security. No child would be there involuntarily and troublemakers could be expelled.

Private schools cost half that of government schools; they are non union and have few administrators. The county where I live has 60,000 public school students and 125 administrators making more than $100,000 and gaggles more making less. In contrast, the local religious diocese has 15,000 students and 3 administrators.

With universal choice, parents can choose schools that reinforce, rather than contradict, their values. In public schools, parents are not informed if their child wishes to change pronouns or even to begin transitioning. Children are fed propaganda that scares the bejesus out of them about the environment and climate change. They are taught America is an intolerant and oppressive nation.

Public schools are like public housing; only those with no other choice go there.

Universal choice allows parents to choose schools that meet their children’s needs. For slow students, public schools impede learning. For capable students, the slow pace is torture, as they sit year after year in an inescapable miasma. Every student should be taught at his/her level by a teacher at the same level.

Government schools are not necessary for American democracy; that canard went the way of the carrier pigeon. Eons ago, it was possible for a laborer’s daughter to marry the banker’s son, but today there is no way they would attend the same school. Public schools do not foster unity from diversity; they exacerbate differences.

Jobs Program for Adults

Government schools are jobs programs for adults; the children be damned. Public schools are like public housing – only those with no other choice go there. Teachers unions and the blob of administrators suck the sustenance out of our children while filling them with claptrap. Government schools are a destructive force that is incapable of reform. America’s children will be far better off, and at half the cost, when public schools also go the way of the carrier pigeon.

© 2024 George Noga
More Liberty – Less Government, Post Office Box 916381
Longwood, FL 32791-6381, Email: mllg@cfl.rr.com