Education Reform

Proposal for

Libertarian Education Reform

Our priority is our children’s future, not the teachers unions’ welfare

Goals of the proposal:

1.     Allow all families regardless of income) access to any schools including private, religious or charter.  

2.     Allow schools to choose the best curriculum to make students better educated, better prepared for colleges and more competitive.

3.     Allow schools to encourage good teachers who help students grow and to dismiss the bad ones.

4.     Allow parents to chose their children’s schools.

5.     Increase the role of parents and local authorities in all aspects of K-12 education.

Educational policy:

Educational policy is of critical importance to Americans at all levels of life, but of crucial importance to those at the lower end of the economic ladder. A sound education is the essential element of upward economic and social mobility; and a large part of the American society is being deprived of a sound education and an opportunity to succeed because of an unsound public educational policy.

The well-to-do can escape the system either by sending their children to private school or by buying homes in areas in which public education is, if not great, still not a total failure. The poor have no choice. They're stuck in much the same way that American veterans are stuck with the incompetent and corrupt Veterans Administration, to cite the most recent example of government at its worst.

Our proposal will resonate with the people suffering most from the current educational morass. Our libertarian approach allows us to come up with solutions which are practical and offer a real chance of improvement in the foreseeable future. We attempted to avoid unrealistic solutions like the abolition of public education which have no chance of enactment.   

What follows are suggestions for educational improvement which can be implemented without sea changes in American governance. We will use California in an example but we believe the recommendations are equally valid throughout the country.

Details of the plan:

1.     A major increase in the use of school vouchers.  Teachers unions hate vouchers and anything that teachers’ unions hate, governments at every level attempt to stifle. When rational people heard about the disgraceful conditions at the VA and the incredible wait times veterans faced, the first thing that they cried out for was vouchers entitling veterans access to private medical services at government expense on the ground that it was immoral to deprive veterans of medical care.

It is no less immoral to deprive children of an education without which most will lose their best chance in life. If they can't get a desired education in a public school, give them the money (voucher) to attend the school of their choice and reduce the amount public schools receive by an equivalent amount. A goal should be established that a certain percentage of students should be entitled to vouchers each year with the number growing annually until a long term target would be reached.

The move to vouchers should to be instituted gradually - though not slowly – so public schools would have time to adjust to the resulting revenue reduction. A mass exodus from government schools would be the wakeup call needed for teachers and school administrators to begin to make changes for the better. Competition is the real key to success.

Beholden to teachers’ unions, governments will not happily pursue a large scale voucher system. Therefore, an attempt should be made in California (and in other states with a similar ballot proposal system exists) to utilize the California voter initiative system to enable widespread voucher usage.          

2.     A major increase in charter schools. Charter schools are relatively free from two of the greatest enemies of an effective public school system – both governmental regulations and union influence. Contrary to opponents’ propaganda, thought imperfect, they are a significant improvement. 

In addition to regular charter schools, California has created magnet schools. They are an improved version of the charter schools, requiring competitive entrance examination, and are like the British Grammar School which for many years (until the Labor Party destroyed them) were the finest public secondary schools in the world.

As in the case of vouchers, the unions hate Charter Schools and the Democratic Party has done much to impede their progress.  Their educational success (instead of adding to their appeal) has had the opposite effect.  The number of charter schools should be systematically increased to a very substantial predetermined percentage of total school enrollments.

Because of the expected political opposition, an attempt should be made to enact a new law mandating an increase in charter schools using a voter initiative system where available. 

Interestingly the cost of charter schools is substantially less than the regular public school. For example in 2011, the average per student charter school cost was $8,000 compared to $13,000 for the “government run/union controlled” public school.

3.     All K-12 school tenure must be ended.  Tenure and all forms of artificial job protection and security should be eliminated. Tenure at public schools was not created to protect freedom of thought as was done at the university level. It was simply a means of job protection: it damages educational quality. If a teacher or administrator is not doing a good job, they should be fired. Teachers consider tenure to be a sacred right, with the unions’ influence making it almost impossible to get either political party to fight for its elimination.

As with vouchers and charter schools, we recommend direct voter involvement through the initiative process. It may not be easy but is an available pathway.

           

4.     Ease regulations and licensing of new Private and Charter schools.  Frequently the interests on the teachers conflict with the best interests of students. Teachers have undue power due to the large sums of money which they donate to the Democratic Party which in turn pays them back in a variety of destructive ways. At least in California, there is no hope that the Democratic Party will ever vote against these unions’ interests, even if that means harm to our children. The GOP lacks the courage to fight this battle, resulting in our children losing chances in life.

A license process for opening of new Private and Charter schools shall be simplified. It is in our kids’ interests, and we must remember that education is what will help our children to succeed in life. 

5.     Public school budgets should be calculated based on the amount of students each school attracted. Public schools should not be allowed to spend more than the total amount received for their number of  students (plus any donations they can receive from private parties).

6.     A school can create their own curriculum, purchase it from elsewhere or sell their own curriculum to other schools. Since schools will be competing for students, one of the points will be quality.

7.     Any parent should have a right to bring their child’s vouchers to a public, charter or private school.

8.     School boards in all types of schools shall be given a right to fire teachers or administrators, and reduce or raise their salaries based on their performances.

9.     All federal government involvement in public education should be ended and the Departments of Education (both State and Federal) should be closed, or at a transitional period their roles shall be changed to advisory and information providers. At the next stage those roles will be played by private companies in free market competition.  

Despite huge spending (approximately $70 billion annually) public education has shown no improvement and arguably has deteriorated because of the increased Federal role and teachers’ union control. There is literally no hope that the federal role will be reduced or that teachers- union’s grip on education will be eased by either of the two ruling parties let alone eliminated. Regardless, no Libertarian proposal on education would be complete without advocating the elimination of federal & state governments and teachers’ union meddling.                                                                                                                                                

Principle architects of the proposal:

Don Ochacher, attorney-at-law, lifetime libertarian, and

Leon Weinstein, author & lecturer, Chair Media Committee, Libertarian Party of California                                               

The following members of the Libertarian Party advised, provided critique, suggestions or worked on this proposal:

Mark Hinkle, Retired Chair, Libertarian Party (National)

Jeffrey Hewitt, Vice Mayor, Calimesa, CA

Dr. Lee Welter

Olivier Schreiber

Please direct your inquiries to

Leon Weinstein

Leon.weinstein@gmail.com