I remember very clearly the time I took something called the
World’s Smallest Political Quiz. Ten questions total; five on personal issues
and five on economic issues. Answering the questions online, I was taken to a
graph that was divided into quadrants and that dropped me firmly into the heart
of the libertarian section. For a person who believes in freedom, personal
responsibility and small government it made perfect sense to me.
It also made perfect sense that I was drawn to then Texas
Congressman, Ron Paul. I had the opportunity to interview Paul in the days
before he ran for President and found his thoughts on limited government lined
up well with my own. Paul is an accomplished, bestselling author and in this
new effort, The School Revolution: A New
Answer for Our Broken Education System he offers up his fix for the failing
public U.S. education system.
Paul writes with a very matter-of-fact style as he dissects the
current state of the centralized education system. Along the way Paul delivers
a historical take on things through the lens of his own education. He also
indicts the system we are saddled with for funding the education system. He
posits the solution that we must somehow put the funding of education back into
the hands of parents as educational decision makers.
I can hear the unholy howls of public education advocates
and teachers union types in response to Paul’s “answer.” Like anything else,
including healthcare, I favor putting the decision making power back into the
hands of the individual. I am not certain that we could ever effectuate the
wholesale change that Paul advocates. In this day and age of social engineering
of liberals that has lead to the destruction of the family unit I can’t imagine
what the country would look like if every so-called parent; just because you’ve
been part of the process of having a child, doesn’t make you a parent, were to
determine the education process for their children.
It does however make perfect sense that those parents who
are capable of making educational decisions on behalf of their offspring,
should be afforded the opportunity to opt out of the government education system
and take their dollars with them to the alternative choices they make. This
simple step will inject competition into the education system. Where there is
competition, it naturally follows, there is the pursuit of excellence and
higher standards. If the government schools improve, they can compete on equal
footing for parent’s education dollars.
Despite agreeing with Congressman Paul on the personal
freedom side, I could never bring myself to support his presidential runs, because
his supposed support for smaller government rang hollow when he larded his
districts pork barrel projects into house spending bills and sought cover by
voting against bills that he knew would pass. In similar fashion, Paul uses this
book to not only offer up an education solution, but to hawk his online
education curriculum. While I am a capitalist and completely understand Paul’s
goals, there’s just something a bit smarmy about the approach.
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