Government schools are a destructive force incapable of significant reform.
Abolish Government (Public) Schools
By: George Noga – November 13, 2022
This post destroys the final school choice myth, i.e. that public schools are necessary. We advocate universal school choice with the money following the child. Up to now, we assumed choice would force public schools to become competitive. We now conclude government schools are a destructive force incapable of significant reform and should be abolished. First, we recap other myths propagated by teachers’ unions.
- Choice drains money: Vouchers always are for less (usually far less) than per pupil spending in public schools. Hence, vouchers increase spending per public student.
- Some children are left behind: This is analogous to asserting that because there are not enough lifeboats for everyone, then no one should be saved.
- Choice Balkanizes education: Students already are highly stratified by income and race. School choice, rather than compulsion, does much more to bridge divides.
- Segregation would increase: Public schools already are highly segregated based on where people live. Voluntary integration under choice is better than forced integration.
- The rich benefit under choice: The wealthy already have choice based largely on where they choose to live. The poorest among us need choice the most.
- Poor families make bad choices: Not only is this insulting to low-income families, but empirical evidence from existing voucher programs dispels this myth.
- Voucher schools are unaccountable: Private schools are immediately and directly answerable to parents, government schools only indirectly to school boards elected every four years. There is no force more powerful than parents armed with a voucher.
- Voucher schools are unregulated: Regulating private schools would turn them into the monstrosities families are desperately escaping. Parents are the best regulators.
The Case for Abolishing Government Schools
Abolishing public schools will reduce school shootings. As gun free zones, public schools are easy targets. They create hordes of disgruntled and disaffected students who are held there involuntarily; it is not shocking some of them turn to mass violence. With school choice, parents could select schools that provide strong security. No child would be there involuntarily, and troublemakers could be summarily expelled.
Because private schools are non-union and have few administrators, they cost roughly half that of government schools. The county where I live (Seminole) has 60,000 students and 125 administrators making $100,000 per year plus many more making less. In sharp contrast, the Catholic Diocese of Orlando has 15,000 students and only 3 administrators. Eliminating unions and unneeded administrators not only saves money, but it does away with all the mindless bureaucracy that stifles learning.
Abolishing public schools would result in better schools at half the cost
Schools should adapt to the needs and capacities of its students. For less capable students, public schools impede learning, while for bright students the incredible slow pace is a form of torture as they sit year after year in an inescapable miasma. Every student needs a school at his/her level taught by teachers at the same level.
Then there is the issue of values. Families should be able to have their children attend schools that reinforce, rather than contradict, parental values. Parents should not have children taught CRT, the 1619 Project and gender dysphoria without their consent. They needlessly scare the bejesus out of kids about the environment and climate change. Public schools take in carefree, joyous and eager children living in the most well-off, healthy and multicultural society ever known and indoctrinate them to believe they actually inhabit a horribly oppressive country of which they should be ashamed.
That public schools are necessary for maintaining American democracy is a canard that no longer exists and is actually perverse. Eons ago, it might have been possible for a laborer’s daughter to marry the banker’s son, but today there is no way they would attend the same school. Data show private schools produce superior civic outcomes. Public schools do not foster unity from diversity; they exacerbate diversity.
Government schools are a jobs program for adults; children be damned. They resemble public housing; only people with no other choice go there. Public schools, teachers’ unions and the blob of administrators suck the sustenance out of our children. Government schools are a destructive force that can’t be significantly reformed and that cause far more harm than good. America will be much better off without them.
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