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Maryland Governor Larry Hogan recently signed an executive order forbidding Maryland public schools from beginning classes before Labor Day. Governor Hogan’s executive order benefits businesses in Maryland’s coastal areas that lose school-aged summer employees and business from Maryland families when schools start in August. However, as Governor Hogan’s critics have pointed out, some Maryland school districts, as well as Maryland schoolchildren, benefit from an earlier start to the school year.
Governor Hogan’s executive order is the latest example of how centralized government control of education leaves many students behind. A centrally planned education system can no more meet the unique needs of every child than a centrally planned economic system can meet the unique needs of every worker and consumer.
Centralizing education at the state or, worse, federal level inevitably leads to political conflicts over issues ranging from whether students should be allowed to pray on school grounds, to what should be the curriculum, to what food should be served in the cafeteria, to who should be allowed to use which bathroom.
The centralization and politicization of education is rooted in the idea that education is a right that must be provided by the government, instead of a good that individuals should obtain in the market. Separating school from state would empower parents to find an education system that meets the needs of their children instead of using the political process to force their idea of a good education on all children.
While many politicians praise local and parental control of education, the fact is both major parties embrace federal control of education. The two sides only differ on the details. Liberals who oppose the testing mandates of No Child Left Behind enthusiastically backed President Clinton’s national testing proposals. They also back the Obama administration’s expansion of federal interference in the classroom via Common Core.
Similarly, conservatives who (correctly) not just opposed Clinton’s initiatives but called for the abolition of the Department of Education enthusiastically supported No Child Left Behind. Even most conservatives who oppose Common Core, federal bathroom and cafeteria mandates, and other federal education policies, support reforming, instead of eliminating, the Department of Education.
Politicians will not voluntarily relinquish control over education to parents. Therefore, parents and other concerned citizens should take a page from the UK and work to “Ed-Exit” government-controlled education. Parents and other concerned citizens should pressure Congress to finally shut down the Department of Education and return the money to American families. They also must pressure state governments and local school boards to reject federal mandates, even if it means forgoing federal funding.
Parents should also explore education alternatives, such as private, charter, and religious schools, as well as homeschooling. Homeschooling is the ultimate form of Ed-Exit. Homeschooling parents have the freedom to shape every aspect of education — from the curriculum to the length of the school day to what their children have for lunch to who can and cannot use the bathroom — to fit their child’s unique needs.
Parents interested in providing their children with a quality education emphasizing the ideas of liberty should try out my homeschooling curriculum. The curriculum provides students with a well-rounded education that includes courses in personal finance and public speaking. The government and history sections of the curriculum emphasize Austrian economics, libertarian political theory, and the history of liberty. However, unlike government schools, my curriculum never puts ideological indoctrination ahead of education.
Parents interested in Ed-Exiting from government-run schools can learn more about my curriculum at ronpaulcurriculum.com.
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Throw out the commies, everything else is a waste of energy.
Authenticjazzman, “Mensa” society member of forty-plus years and pro jazz artist.
What are the benefits to starting the school year earlier?
Amen.
Education?
Where’s the ed? The mass indoctrination, training and babysitting that goes on in institutions all over the US is not education. In fact, it tends to inhibit the acquisition of an education and this has been realized since at least the time of Ben Franklin.
The complaint from some school districts was that they would not have time to prepare their students for tests later in the school year.
I don’t think a smart-ass like Ben would have done well in your average American high school today.
It hasn’t received much coverage in either the MSM or alternative media, but Trump has expressed a desire to return control of education to the local level. This stance more than anything else is what brought me around to thinking that he actually has good intentions.
So a governor cannot decide for all the children of a (tiny) state, but a school principal could decide for all the hundreds of children attending his school? How do you think is the school year decided in countries with best secondary and high schools, say, Finland?
Some things don’t change.
The idea is that it makes more sense to decide these things locally. So yes, it makes more sense for a single school principal to decide the school’s starting date than for the state governor to decide a single start date for all schools in the state. As for Finland, how do you know that their success is due to all their schools having the same centrally mandated start date? Perhaps Finnish schools are successful despite such mandates.
That does sound promising. Down with Common Core! But the Maryland example shows that decentralization and privatization should ideally extend to the state level as well.
” Perhaps Finnish schools are successful despite such mandates”
There is nothing “Successful” about Finnish education unless one considers PC on speed to be a positive direction for society to move in.
There are so many rediculous myths about scandinavia alive in the US, and all of them being upheld as grounds for the installation of maxism in America.
Authenticjazzman, “Mensa” Society member of forty-plus years and pro jazz artist.
I agree and would maintain that the more intelligent one is, the more damage one sustains by remaining in school. Who the heck needs more than two or three years at most to learn the rudiments of math and reading anyway?
The rest is nothing more than what I stated above. It’s essentially just another racket.
Here’s another smart ass with inside insight.
Is the “Mensa” society kind of like the Special “Olympics”?
Yep.
Authenticjazzman, “Mensa” Society member of forty-plus years and pro jazz artist.
” The plague of man is boasting of his intelligence”..
Michel de Montaigne”
Screw Michel de Montaigne, the era of ” Authorities” is past, and I don’t give a rats-ass about any of them : “Authorities”.
Einstein was wrong on a myriad of issues starting with his speed of light BS, and the world worships him and his nonsense, such as they do the buddhist pope and ultimate BS artist the Dalai lama.
Authenticjazzman, “Mensa” society member of forty-plus years and pro jazz artist.
And that particular load of manure ends your run. You have successfully, and resoundingly, confirmed my opinion of all Mensans — that they are, without exception, loud and obnoxious jackasses.
You are Ignored.
” you are ignored”
Great I was hoping for this result.
Authenticjazzman, “Mensa” society member of forty-plus years, pro jazz artist and Airborne qualified US Army vet.
I am 100% for homeschooling my children (and I’m a public school teacher). Too bad the govt has allowed corporations to steal from the very employees that keep it running. Lack of fair pay, overtime, benefits, and removal of pensions are all prime examples of this theft. How many households (outside of your DC bubble of million dollar incomes) do you see that can afford to live on the salary of one? Nice try trashing education once again. No different than all the other politicians who want to blame the public schools for providing a poor education. How about the people passing the poor laws and mandates actually take responsibility when they crash and burn. Public schools are only following the laws created by Washington, yet we are the ones to blame for the poor outcome.