This week, tens of thousands of Americans in every state are attending rallies. Twenty-four governors and four state legislatures have officially recognized this celebration, and it wasn’t Obama’s State of the Union.
The federal government has standardized K-12 education long enough and people in every state are taking a stand against it. That’s what National School Choice Week is all about: giving parents more options for the education of their children.
Before I came to Hillsdale, I had only met one or two homeschoolers. I thought they were an odd bunch: people not social enough for regular high school – and a bit shifty-eyed to boot. Like the Amish, these ascetics vowed not to be ruled by modern technology and enlightened civilization.
Who would have thought they were the civilized ones all along? I’ve never counted, but I’d bet about half of my friends at Hillsdale were homeschooled. Some of them learn much faster than I, and I admire the things their parents taught them.
Fortunately, my own parents were very involved in my education. They enrolled me in Dennison Elementary, a school well known for scoring highly on standardized tests that only accepted students by lottery. After school they’d ask what I learned guide me through important moral issues as they were raised. I was lucky that my school was mostly conservative, so they didn’t have to do as much work correcting too many liberal biases.
From Dennison Elementary, I moved up to another school well known for high test scores – D’Evelyn Junior Senior High School. I was well prepared for Hillsdale.
But I’ll never forget passing by the other schools on the bus ride to Dennison. Understaffed, with multiple classes in one room, Jefferson County Open School (JCOS) struggled to teach its students anything. While I learned about math and science, some of my peers still had to work on spelling. JCOS was the school closest to Dennison, and I was glad that I didn’t go there.
Many different people voice many different concerns about our educational system: bad teachers, lazy students, and not enough technology (“infrastructure” in Obama’s words). But these are merely the symptoms of a much deeper disease. I won’t delve into a “culture war” diatribe, but I will say forty years after the creation of the Department of Education, federal control of our schools has not helped the situation.
Rather than a top-down system of bureaucracy, perhaps a bottom-up system of choice would solve these complaints. More parental involvement in the education of children would do more than keep both teachers and students on their toes, it would incentivize responsibility.
Studies have shown the importance of a two-parent family to a child’s health and future success. Common sense recalls that two parents together can do more for their children than one alone. When the family stays together, the parents will be more involved in their children’s education, and the government won’t need to be.
School choice encourages interested parents to get more involved in their children’s education. It won’t totally solve the problem, but it will break the chains of bureaucracy and unshackle American ingenuity by teaching our next generation. It is a first step to cultural renewal, and it’s happening all over the country. I, for one, think this movement deserves celebration.
