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Ron Paul
I think the first thing we have to do to solve these problems with education is to recognize that the federal government should not be the director right now. We have a Department of Education spending billions of dollars. Many students think that the only way they can survive is to go to college, get a degree and run up a debt and then leave college with a $50,000, $60,000 or $100,000 debt. Then there are special loans where a student isn’t even allowed to declare bankruptcy. All of these loans are very harmful.
I would suggest that we look to the constitution for guidance. The constitution has given no authority for the federal government to be involved, and yet they are involved in setting the curriculum. I think there is an agenda there. I don’t think there is any doubt. There are some people who believe that parents are irresponsible. Just because a few aren’t doesn’t mean that everybody has to give up the responsibility and deliver to the government because, in many ways, if education is universal it becomes indoctrination. The bigger a government is, the more control it has. All authoritarian governments, whether it’s a fascist state or a communist state or other types of authoritarian state, generally want control. Our country continues to move in the direction of getting control of the teaching of our children, even at a younger age. First it was Kindergarten, then it was pre-Kindergarten. Now it’s even before that.
We have to challenge that and say that is not a solution. Parents have to speak out and find out what the options are and demand they have the right to opt out. There are so many things that the government is involved in, and it is very difficult to get around it because once you pay all of your taxes to go to school you don’t have much left over to maybe go to private school. Also, parents who are concerned should look at homeschooling because where they might spend $15,000 per child in some of these school districts and not get an education and be exposed to all of these dangers, at the same time some homeschoolers can be educated for $500 a year and get educated. People need to look at that. There should be as much competition as possible.
It would be horrible if homeschooling and private schooling were made illegal, and some people would like to do that. It is crucial that these options are available at the state level. Some districts offer voucher system. I don’t particularly favor the voucher because the government can dictate the same rules on the schools that might take the voucher, so it’s not true competition. A better way to do this would be to give tax credits to individuals so they get their money back if they are going to assume more responsibility.
The question would always come up, what about the very poor? Well, the very poor were educated before we had the federal government doing all of this. To ask a libertarian how would the poor people end up getting education is like asking how do the poor people get a car? How do the poor people get a cell phone? How do the poor people pay to see a football game? It depends on their desires and their willingness to work and realizing there’s always a way. This whole idea that governments are capable of doing this, I think, is a little bit misled. We have to have a lot more confidence in a free society. We have to have a lot more confidence in parental control of education. And we have to have more confidence in a system that distributes wealth in a much fairer manner than the government. For instance, even though for my education I worked hard and paid my tuition, there were a lot of subsidies pumped into medical school and into college. So even if you pay your way and pay all the bills, there are still subsidies. You can say, that’s wonderful, but who ended up paying for that? Some of the poor people pay for this, the people who never get to go to college. The hardworking person ends up paying for this education. It’s the way education is delivered that has to be challenged.
We need to ask the question of whether it’s really a right to have education, whether the federal government should be involved. I believe it should not be involved and then we have to have a society where we have a lot more confidence in the responsibility the parents should share in making sure that, whether it’s a local public school, a private school or homeschooling, they play a role in this. But if this is deferred to a single authoritarian force, especially at the federal level, you’re going to see Common Core getting expanded, never being diminished, and people are going to be more disgruntled than ever. They are very disgruntled right now because people are have spent all this money graduating from college and not having a job. So it’s an absolute failure what’s going on, and we have to be able to offer other options.
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I think the first thing we have to do to solve these problems with education is to recognize that the federal government should not be the director right now. We have a Department of Education spending billions of dollars. Many students think that the only way they can survive is to go to college, get a degree and run up a debt and then leave college with a $50,000, $60,000 or $100,000 debt. Then there are special loans where a student isn’t even allowed to declare bankruptcy. All of these loans are very harmful.
I would suggest that we look to the constitution for guidance. The constitution has given no authority for the federal government to be involved, and yet they are involved in setting the curriculum. I think there is an agenda there. I don’t think there is any doubt. There are some people who believe that parents are irresponsible. Just because a few aren’t doesn’t mean that everybody has to give up the responsibility and deliver to the government because, in many ways, if education is universal it becomes indoctrination. The bigger a government is, the more control it has. All authoritarian governments, whether it’s a fascist state or a communist state or other types of authoritarian state, generally want control. Our country continues to move in the direction of getting control of the teaching of our children, even at a younger age. First it was Kindergarten, then it was pre-Kindergarten. Now it’s even before that.
We have to challenge that and say that is not a solution. Parents have to speak out and find out what the options are and demand they have the right to opt out. There are so many things that the government is involved in, and it is very difficult to get around it because once you pay all of your taxes to go to school you don’t have much left over to maybe go to private school. Also, parents who are concerned should look at homeschooling because where they might spend $15,000 per child in some of these school districts and not get an education and be exposed to all of these dangers, at the same time some homeschoolers can be educated for $500 a year and get educated. People need to look at that. There should be as much competition as possible.
It would be horrible if homeschooling and private schooling were made illegal, and some people would like to do that. It is crucial that these options are available at the state level. Some districts offer voucher system. I don’t particularly favor the voucher because the government can dictate the same rules on the schools that might take the voucher, so it’s not true competition. A better way to do this would be to give tax credits to individuals so they get their money back if they are going to assume more responsibility.
The question would always come up, what about the very poor? Well, the very poor were educated before we had the federal government doing all of this. To ask a libertarian how would the poor people end up getting education is like asking how do the poor people get a car? How do the poor people get a cell phone? How do the poor people pay to see a football game? It depends on their desires and their willingness to work and realizing there’s always a way. This whole idea that governments are capable of doing this, I think, is a little bit misled. We have to have a lot more confidence in a free society. We have to have a lot more confidence in parental control of education. And we have to have more confidence in a system that distributes wealth in a much fairer manner than the government. For instance, even though for my education I worked hard and paid my tuition, there were a lot of subsidies pumped into medical school and into college. So even if you pay your way and pay all the bills, there are still subsidies. You can say, that’s wonderful, but who ended up paying for that? Some of the poor people pay for this, the people who never get to go to college. The hardworking person ends up paying for this education. It’s the way education is delivered that has to be challenged.
We need to ask the question of whether it’s really a right to have education, whether the federal government should be involved. I believe it should not be involved and then we have to have a society where we have a lot more confidence in the responsibility the parents should share in making sure that, whether it’s a local public school, a private school or homeschooling, they play a role in this. But if this is deferred to a single authoritarian force, especially at the federal level, you’re going to see Common Core getting expanded, never being diminished, and people are going to be more disgruntled than ever. They are very disgruntled right now because people are have spent all this money graduating from college and not having a job. So it’s an absolute failure what’s going on, and we have to be able to offer other options.
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Continue reading...
