Ron Paul on the educational establishment

[Prometheus Beta]

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Education is Too Important Not to Leave to the Marketplace

This week, events around the country will highlight the importance of parental control of education as part of National School Choice Week. This year’s events should attract more attention than prior years because of the growing rebellion against centralized education sparked by the federal Common Core curriculum.

The movement against Common Core has the potential to change American education. However, anti-Common Core activists must not be misled by politicians promoting “reforms” of the federal education bureaucracy, or legislation ending Common Core while leaving all other federal education programs intact. The only way to protect American children from future Common Core-like programs is to permanently padlock the Department of Education.

Federal programs providing taxpayer funds to public schools give politicians and bureaucrats leverage to impose federal mandates on schools. So as long as federal education programs exist, school children will be used as guinea pigs for federal bureaucrats who think they are capable of creating a curriculum suitable for every child in the country.

Supporters of federal education mandates say they are necessary to hold schools “accountable.” Of course schools should be accountable, but accountable to whom?

Several studies, as well as common sense, show that greater parental control of education improves education quality. In contrast, bureaucratic control of education lowers education quality. Therefore, the key to improving education is to make schools accountable to parents, not bureaucrats.

The key to restoring parental control is giving parents control of the education dollar. If parents control the education dollar, school officials will strive to meet the parents’ demand that their children receive a quality education. If the federal government controls the education dollar, schools will bow to the demands of Congress and the Department of Education.

So if Congress was serious about improving education it would shut down the Department of Education. It would also shut down all other unconstitutional bureaucracies, end our interventionist foreign policy, and reform monetary policy so parents would have the resources to provide their children with an education that fits their children’s unique needs. Federal and state lawmakers must also repeal any laws that limit the education alternatives parents can choose for their children. The greater the options parents have and the greater the amount of control they exercise over education, the stronger the education system.

These reforms would allow more parents access to education options such as private or religious schools, and also homeschooling. It would also expand the already growing market in homeschooling curriculums. I know a great deal about the homeschooling curriculum market, as I have my own homeschooling curriculum. The Ron Paul Curriculum provides students with a rigorous program of study in history, economics, mathematics, and the physical and natural sciences. It also provides intensive writing instruction and an opportunity for students to operate their own Internet businesses. Of course, my curriculum provides students with an introduction to the ideas of liberty, including Austrian economics. However, we do not sacrifice education quality for ideological indoctrination.

It is no coincidence that as the federal role in education has increased the quality of our education system has declined. Any “reforms” to federal education programs will not fix the fundamental flaw in the centralized model of education. The only way to improve education is to shut down the Department of Education and restore control of education to those with the greatest ability and incentive to choose the type of education that best meets the needs of American children — American parents.

This, i.e. re-institutionalizing the educational establishment as part of the free-market, is probably the best long-standing solution to the ills that afflict an increasingly dysfunctional school-level (and to a lesser extent, the higher education as well) educational establishment especially in the US, but more generally in the western world today.

Computer technology and the internet has already turned out to be almost a panacea of sorts to the modern plague of government control, and it will probably come to our rescue again: imo one of the greatest things to come out of it is the newly emerging institution of the online educational establishment. Im sure most of the students here are already familiar with things like the Khan Academy (that awesome Bangladeshi fellow on youtube, Salman Khan). These new media will ultimately make the option of home-schooling increasingly more viable for an increasing segment of the parent population in the near future.

In the more distant future, the entire school based educational establishment will probably be displaced by these new "libertarian" (Mr Ron Paul seems to live up to his philosophy in its entirety) alternatives. Teachers would likely have their roles transformed into tutoring and more aiding type roles.

Of course none of this would change the "inequalities" associated with this greatest engine of social mobility, actually I strongly suspect that it will exacerbate that problem: the bright and hard-working kids, when allowed to work at their own pace, will inevitably climb up their schooling years even more faster than the "gangstas" and pregnant teens, whose disadvantage can only augment with the passage of time (the fact is that the economy of the world in general moves in only one direction with technological progress, toward more skill-based and intellectually-demanding employment).

But such is the nature of life. Capitalism, that default form of social arrangement most compatible with human nature, in fact cannot, by its very nature, allow "equality" as the political left uses the term (all peoples being identical in every meaningful way).

 

[Conspirator.]

Great thread. I definitely agree with your main points.

 

[YowYan]

Ron Paul has been my political idol since early 2011 and this particular topic is highly important as I've seen american parents post their children's homework on social media with, for example, a deliberate mistranslation of the constitution. Parent's authority over their children are being challenged by the federal government. In some stories, children cannot bring their own lunch to school but are pushed into eating the gmo crap available in the school cantine. In another, a parent cannot come into the school unannounced. (this mum got arrested for wanting to bring her child to see her dying grandmother or something as she just walked into the school without an appointment) plenty more examples I vaguely remember.

''But Americans are rising up by the tens of thousands to stop Common Core, which is the current attempt to compel all U.S. children to be taught the same material and not be taught other things parents might think important.

Ever since Congress began pouring federal tax dollars into public schools, parents have been solicitous to have Congress write into law a prohibition against the federal government writing curriculum or lesson plans, or imposing a uniform national curriculum. Parents want those decisions made at the local level by local school boards which are, or should be, subject to the watchful eyes of local citizens and parents.''

 

[NineSNS]

I agree that federal/national governments should not legislate education standards. Money spent seems to be inversely proportional to student results.

It is the parent's job to encourage and value academic effort and achievement in their children.

In the US at least, there isn't a lack of government spending, there's a lack of parenting.

 

[Prometheus Beta]

Ron Paul has been my political idol since early 2011 and this particular topic is highly important as I've seen american parents post their children's homework on social media with, for example, a deliberate mistranslation of the constitution. Parent's authority over their children are being challenged by the federal government. In some stories, children cannot bring their own lunch to school but are pushed into eating the gmo crap available in the school cantine. In another, a parent cannot come into the school unannounced. (this mum got arrested for wanting to bring her child to see her dying grandmother or something as she just walked into the school without an appointment) plenty more examples I vaguely remember.

''But Americans are rising up by the tens of thousands to stop Common Core, which is the current attempt to compel all U.S. children to be taught the same material and not be taught other things parents might think important.

Ever since Congress began pouring federal tax dollars into public schools, parents have been solicitous to have Congress write into law a prohibition against the federal government writing curriculum or lesson plans, or imposing a uniform national curriculum. Parents want those decisions made at the local level by local school boards which are, or should be, subject to the watchful eyes of local citizens and parents.''

Yeah man I noticed you were a Ron Paul fan; I am a fan as well, but not an acolyte, if you will. Many of his views, like this, I endorse, others (his subscription to that unorthodox school of economics), I am a bit skeptical of.

I agree that federal/national governments should not legislate education standards. Money spent seems to be inversely proportional to student results.

It is the parent's job to encourage and value academic effort and achievement in their children.

In the US at least, there isn't a lack of government spending, there's a lack of parenting.

I agree with that assessment (concerning parenting) but frankly I don't know how we might go about doing something about that. The traditional institution of the family, much less good parenting, has been on rapid decline in the west for the past century. It is probably a complex development but I suspect that one critical factor was the decline of Christianity (and I say that as an atheist).

How we might reverse this trend I don't really know - interestingly the East Asians, the Japanese in particular, have kept their family structures intact, and without the help of a religion. The cost to pay though seems to be at least some form of social conservatism, and alas, this is the paradox of the western world: economic success among western peoples tends to lead to liberalization (at least at the population scale). But liberalization in the long term, with the concomitant social decay/decadence, as the past century had made all too clear, will in fact, in my opinion, lead to our decline -actually in parts of motherland Europe, it might be the end of us once and for all if present demographic trends continue.

 

[YowYan]

Yeah man I noticed you were a Ron Paul fan; I am a fan as well, but not an acolyte, if you will. Many of his views, like this, I endorse, others (his subscription to that unorthodox school of economics), I am a bit skeptical of.



I agree with that assessment (concerning parenting) but frankly I don't know how we might go about doing something about that. The traditional institution of the family, much less good parenting, has been on rapid decline in the west for the past century. It is probably a complex development but I suspect that one critical factor was the decline of Christianity (and I say that as an atheist).

How we might reverse this trend I don't really know - interestingly the East Asians, the Japanese in particular, have kept their family structures intact, and without the help of a religion. The cost to pay though seems to be at least some form of social conservatism, and alas, this is the paradox of the western world: economic success among western peoples tends to lead to liberalization (at least at the population scale). But liberalization in the long term, with the concomitant social decay/decadence, as the past century had made all too clear, will in fact, in my opinion, lead to our decline -actually in parts of motherland Europe, it might be the end of us once and for all if present demographic trends continue.

Ofcourse some policy proposals of his will clash with other citizens. But other than that, he's a genuine constitutionalist that can't be bribed by the neocons. His presidential race was necessary to open many people's eyes to the dangers of passively accepting the undermining of civil liberties.

I'm a straightforward guy and I appreciate straightforward people like him because he's not full of sh1t like most politicians.

 

[NineSNS]

I agree with that assessment (concerning parenting) but frankly I don't know how we might go about doing something about that. The traditional institution of the family, much less good parenting, has been on rapid decline in the west for the past century. It is probably a complex development but I suspect that one critical factor was the decline of Christianity (and I say that as an atheist).

How we might reverse this trend I don't really know - interestingly the East Asians, the Japanese in particular, have kept their family structures intact, and without the help of a religion. The cost to pay though seems to be at least some form of social conservatism, and alas, this is the paradox of the western world: economic success among western peoples tends to lead to liberalization (at least at the population scale). But liberalization in the long term, with the concomitant social decay/decadence, as the past century had made all too clear, will in fact, in my opinion, lead to our decline -actually in parts of motherland Europe, it might be the end of us once and for all if present demographic trends continue.

Sadly, I agree with you on the trends. Parents are key to the success of any education system. I don't necessarily think the decline of Christianity is responsible, but rather the sense of entitlement among the citizens and their general apathy regarding personal responsibility. If an adult isn't responsible for his own care and behavior, he can't be a successful role model or primary caregiver for a child.

 

[paratise]

Schools limit actual meaning of education. It takes so much while giving little and crushing individuality. To be honest i do not think parents themselves are adequate either.

I think what people are missing is education are about students. Not parents' or any other mediums' demands. And most parents are not well informed/educated themselves and involving them into game might not be beneficial for students in the end. For ex. parents' religious/political beliefs or discriminations (such as sexism) can very well get into way. Kids my thrown from one vicious cycle to another one.

I am kind of split on this matter. It is way deeper than i got into anyway.