Education
Public schools are supposed to provide a good education for our
children. More often than not, they don't. Each year public schools
graduate more and more students who are unable to read, write, or do
basic arithmetic. Our children's talents are wasted because we
continue to trust politicians to do this important job. Politicians
have had decades to fix these problems, and they haven't been able to
do so.
In recent years, government involvement in education has grown rapidly.
At the same time, the quality of the education offered to most public
school students has gone down. We are finding, as with so many other
government efforts, that throwing more money or more regulations at
this problem does not fix it. The best way to end the crisis in
education is to deal with the main cause -- government involvement.
The politicians who run the public schools have created new regulations
and mandated new programs. These are imposed on local schools. We
have more bureaucracy and less innovation. We have more red tape and
less creativity. More resources are spent on these matters. The cost
of education goes up. The quality of education goes down.
Many public schools have become dangerous places for our children. The
news is filled with reports of drug use, rapes, assaults, and murders
in our schools. It's difficult to expect a child to learn in a place
where the child does not feel safe. Yet most families have no choice
but to send their children to the local public school, no matter how
dangerous.
It's no surprise that poor children suffer the most under the current
system. Wealthy parents can afford to send their children to better or
safer schools. Poor parents have no choice. Their children generally
end up in the schools with the worst problems. These children end up
at a public school, which is obligated to accept every local student,
even those who are not interested in learning or who have a reputation
for being disruptive or dangerous. The current system traps poor
children in poor schools. This is just one reason that many parents
have given up hope that their children will escape the poverty they
have known.
To solve a crisis, you must recognize and eliminate its cause. The
crisis in education is no different. The most important step is to end
government control of education. We must move toward a system where
parents have good, safe, affordable choices for educating their
children.
To transfer control of education from bureaucrats to parents and
teachers and encourage alternatives to the public school monopoly, the
Libertarian Party would:
- Support a true market in education -- one in which parents and
students would not be stuck with a bad local school, because they could
choose another.
- Implement measures such as tax credits so that parents will have the
financial ability to choose among schools.
- Provide financial incentives for businesses to help fund schools and
for individuals to support students other than their own children.
- Eliminate the U.S. Department of Education, which spends billions on
education and educates no one. The growth of this agency and its
numerous regulations is a major reason for runaway costs in American
schools.
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