Government schools vs. parents' rulesWritten by Kurt St. Angelo
Government schools vs. parents' rules by Kurt St. Angelo @2005 Libertarian Writers' BureauI usually hold up Indiana’s constitution for libertarian principles that it embodies, such as individual liberty and self-responsibility. However, in area of education, Indiana’s constitution is downright communitarian or, shall I say, socialistic. Article VIII, Section 1 says that General Assembly shall provide “a general and uniform system of Common Schools, wherein tuition shall be without charge, and equally open to all.” This means that state has a responsibility to provide education. It also means that every person in Indiana has a constitutional civil right to a public education, for which others must pay. This is essence of socialism. There are only two ways our state government can fulfill this education mandate. The first is way we do it today – in model of state-run Soviet socialism. Under this regime, state government controls teachers, curriculum and capital assets, which are education’s so-called means of production. This is analogous to Soviet government’s control of energy, natural resources, factories and manpower in its failed production of just about everything. Government schools offer an inferior educational product at nearly twice price per student compared to private and parochial schools. There is a reason for poor performance. It’s called lack of competition. No one can control spending and improve quality within a monopolistic system that has no true competitors. If politicians didn’t prop them up by excluding competition, government schools would likely wither away like Soviet state factories. The other kind of educational system – call it voucher education – would serve us much, much better. Like original G.I. bill, this policy provides that government pay for education, but not necessarily provide it. This is good for no other reason than government does very little well – which is an especially critical issue when it involves our children. In a voucher system, parents could chose to what public or approved schools to send their children. For example, students with interests in music or science could select schools with music or science profiles. Other students may pick schools based on special needs. Vouchers mean being able to chose from a variety of schools, given children’s varied needs and interests.
| | It's Time for Government ReformWritten by Shirley deLong
March 11, 2005It’s time for Government reform on local, state and federal levels! The country is bankrupt! America doesn’t have any money. 6/2004 Federal Website, I quote "National Debt was $7,217,027,211,368.81. A working persons' share was $24,583.01. My guess it's probably one-hundred times this amount. Local and State taxes not included. Time to cut salaries on local, state, and federal level, by at least one (1) month. Cut huge salaries, bonuses, cut out many positions, stop hiring, cut freebies, and company cars and SUV’s. Taxpayers need to make sure Managers, Supervisors, and Workers work 40 to 50 hours for which they were hired. You’d think, with salaries and freebies from $5,000.00 to $20,000.00 monthly, we could at least depend on these people. WRONG! They can’t be trusted! Taxpayers' suspicions have been confirmed! It takes less than an hour a day to do actual jobs. Hiring outside consulting & lobbying firms, paying them thousands of
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