Education

My public education reform plan:

1. Get rid of the Department of Education and all Federal regulation and funding of the public education system.
2. The States should get rid of their state boards of education, and any regulation (including compulsory attendance laws) and funding of the public education system.
3. Local communities could then be in complete control of their schools and could even chose to close them. At the very least they should not fund the schools with any form of tax, but require that parents pay tuition for their own child’s education. The tuition could of course be reduced by scholarships, private donations, etc.

Private schools are a better option. As long as the public schools exist, people at every level of government will try to manipulate them to push some political, religious, or social agenda on children. It's wrong for one’s tax dollars to be used to teach something that one does not approve of, regardless of whether it is federal, state, or local taxes. Each parent, not taxpayers, should have to pay for their own children’s education however they see fit. In particular, it galls me when parents cannot even find out what their child is being taught in sex education classes in public schools, they cannot exempt their child from it, or they cannot opt out of paying taxes which support such a program.

Schools should be free to teach whatever they want without fear being punished for some non-existent “separation of church and state” law. If a public school board or owners of private school want disallow the use of the name of God and of Jesus in their particular school, they should be allowed to. On the other hand, if they want to teach Christianity straight out of the Bible, or any other religion, they should be allowed to do this also. However, parents should always have the right to know what their child is being taught any school, public or private.

I would recommend that all schools and those who chose to educate their children at home teach the English language, the Constitution, and American History and Culture so that all children can meet the same requirements as immigrants do when they apply for citizenship. Even a natural-born citizen should have to meet these requirements in order to get a job, except in extreme cases of mental handicap.

Public universities and colleges should be privatized. The federal government should be allowed to fund various types of research and research institutions, but this should be separate from educational institutions--though they can be associated. The overriding principle should be that government should not force taxpayers to pay for someone else’s education, but only for cutting-edge research that is vital for maintaining our liberty and culture--such as research that is necessary for our national security. The only reasonable exceptions would be programs in which the government is providing education as a form of compensation for services or duties performed for the country such as the ROTC program and government funded education for veterans.