Scott Kamps
Many still argue the public school system can be repaired, but more people are growing convinced that it’s time to replace it.
However, the improvement of the American public education system can be done in a way that is neither propping up the current monopoly of existing public schools nor destroying them altogether.
The middle-ground solution is education-savings accounts. These accounts are logical and sensible, allowing good government public schools to continue and improve, while creating alternatives.
This is an important point in a rural county like ours. Graham County Schools don’t have the same problems as many failing public schools do.
The accounts put tax dollars in funds to be used for students at schools parents choose. Money collected for public education follows the child to whatever schooling option parents deem best (public school, private school or homeschool).
Political momentum is
growing for the accounts; many states have passed or have pending education-savings accounts bills.
But, some oppose this common sense legislation. The main opponents are – ironically – progressives, who usually want to do away with “oppressive” institutions of the past in order to progress into some future utopia.
But in the case of these accounts, progressives want to conserve institutions of public education.
Progressives have made Antonio Gramsci’s “long march through the institutions.” They oppose education-savings accounts because they now use the government schools to propagate their worldview. They don’t want to lose the power/control they now exert over every student in the public school system in America – some places more than others.
There is opposition to the accounts in conservative rural areas as well. Some think the accounts will hurt all public schools – including good ones, like Graham County Schools. But, if school systems receive money from parents, then schools will benefit.
COVID exposed that many problems in our local school system stem from decisions made in Raleigh. If local school officials could make decisions that are best for students in Graham County – not be forced to follow orders from Raleigh – the schools would improve. If they do, they could attract more students. Parents will send their children to the best options they can afford.
Others think the accounts would result in job losses. Teacher jobs may end up going from public institutions to private, but education-savings accounts shouldn’t cause an overall loss of teacher jobs.
It’s true that extraneous administrative jobs in the public school systems could be lost. The government tends to create needless administrative jobs; the private sector doesn’t for obvious reasons.
Would those losses really be a negative?
Some think we need a common school for a common nation. That may have been true 185 years ago when the common-school movement swept America. But a deep ideological divide splits our nation now.
We used to have a cohesive worldview shaped by Christianity. But now, who wants their kids educated by a system that advocates a different understanding of reality, morality, and national identity?
It’s time to give parents the choice of how – and empower them – to educate their children.
Scott Kamps writes a bi-weekly column for The Graham Star. He can be reached via email, thestableguy@frontier.com.