Privatizing Education is the Answer

We are constantly bombarded with news stories about parents complaining about what their children are seeing, hearing or doing in the public schools -- or what their children are not seeing, hearing or doing. Some want more religion in the schools, some want less. Some want the school curriculum to be more liberal, some want it to be more conservative. Here are some recent instances:

• One teenage student's father is upset that his child's school has allowed a visiting speaker to pass out what he deems "anti-Muslim literature." He insists that such material is not free speech, but hate speech. Read the story here.
• An Islamic group is pressuring a school board to remove Jewish and Christian holidays from the school calendar. The group believes that since there are no Muslin holidays there should be no Jewish or Christian holidays. Read the story here.
• A public school student was not allowed to wear a Jesus costume to a school Halloween function. The school officials thought it would be seen as promoting a particular religion. Read the story here.

My point here is not to argue who's right or wrong in these instances. The point I want to make is that all this could be avoided if governments weren't operating the schools. If we had more private schools and fewer government-run public schools then these parents could find a school more suitable for their children. A private school can hand out whatever literature it chooses and if someone can't live with that they can find another school. A private school can observe whatever holidays it chooses and if someone can't live with that they can find another school. A private school can let all its students wear a Jesus costume every day if it wants and if someone can't live with that they can find another school.

I have argued before that we need to shut down our public education system and rely on private enterprise to fill the gap. Private schools can avoid the 'one size fits all' approach to education that the public schools are forced to follow. Private schools can choose to indoctrinate or not to indoctrinate; public schools will always have to indoctrinate. There should be no question that private schools serve their students and parents better than public schools. Why else would the wealthy send their children to private schools?

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