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Our Family Is Finally Off Welfare!

by Theresa Fritz Camoriano

This week, our family is celebrating.  After twelve years on the dole, we are finally getting off of welfare!  Since we are a solidly middle class family, you might not even suspect that we have been on welfare for so long, but it is true.  Since our older daughter, Andrea, entered kindergarten in the government school twelve years ago, we have had at least one child on the education dole – otherwise known as public school.  We took Andrea out of the government school eight years ago, after she finished the third grade, and now our younger daughter, Nina, has finally finished the eighth grade.  So, as of last Friday, we have finally kicked the education welfare habit!

It feels so wonderful to be off welfare!  When you are on welfare, you are a beggar.  You hope the school will do a good job with your child, but, if there is a problem, you must approach the school as a supplicant, asking for help.  You are not a customer, who can freely take your money elsewhere if you are not satisfied.  Instead, you have already been taxed to support the school, and you will continue to be taxed to support the school whether you like it or not.  Thus, the school has little incentive to make any particular effort to help your child.  As a result of this skewed incentive system, many mothers find themselves with a serious part-time or almost full-time volunteer job at the school, in the hopes that the school will treat their children well.   

But, when you are no longer on education welfare, you stop being a beggar and become a paying customer, free to purchase the services that best suit your child.  What a difference!

What a pleasant surprise we had, when we put Andrea in a private school, and the attitude was totally different from what we had experienced within the education welfare system.  In the private school, the educators assured us that they would try first one technique and then another until they found something that helped Andrea.  After the experiences we had been through while on the education dole, I was so thankful that someone was finally willing to make an effort to help Andrea, that I wanted to kiss their feet! As Andrea has grown, we have found that different education situations have worked better at different stages of her growth.  In the past eight years, she has attended two different private schools, and we home schooled her for three years.  We have learned that it is not reasonable to expect a single institution to meet all her needs, and we are pleased to be able to take her to the school that works best at any particular time.  Andrea is now attending a private high school called the Academy for Individual Excellence, which has been a great experience for her.  She has taken the SAT, and we look forward to her attending a college or university after she graduates from high school next year.

As we saw difficulties in Nina’s welfare school, we asked Nina why the teachers didn’t do something about the children’s poor behavior.  She answered, “What are they supposed to do?  They can’t throw the kids out for being disrespectful.”  Since the welfare schools are supported by taxes, they are required to take every student, no matter how obnoxious, disruptive, or disrespectful.  So, as a result, the lunatics are running the asylum in the welfare schools.  (No offense intended to those who have experience with real mental illness, but I just can’t think of a better way to describe the welfare schools today.)  The private schools are very different in this respect, since they are free to escort a disruptive or disrespectful student to the door.

Nina will begin attending a Catholic high school next year.  We have been very impressed with the school so far and have high hopes that it will be a great experience for her.  However, if it turns out not to be a good fit for her, we will be free to take Nina and our tuition money to another place that we think will serve her better.  If the other students turn out to be obnoxious, disruptive, and disrespectful, or if for any other reason Nina is not receiving a good education, and the school does not remedy the situation, we can leave and spend our education money elsewhere.  Of course, since all the families in the private school have this same freedom, we know the chances are excellent that the students will be respectful and will apply themselves to their studies.

It certainly would be nice if we were not forced to support the education welfare system and were free to support only the system we think is best for our children.  Then, instead of paying twice for education, once into the education welfare system and then once into the private system, we could pay only once, leaving us substantial funds to use for other purposes, such as for scholarships to give other families the same freedom.  Unfortunately, there are powerful forces that are working to prevent that from happening.  Too many people have a vested interest in the education welfare system.  So, despite the fact that we all know the free market provides the best quality of goods and services at the most reasonable prices, most “professional educators”, whose bread is buttered through the welfare education system, will continue to fight to support that system, keeping most families trapped in the education welfare system.

If you are still on welfare, you have my sympathy.  As one who has kicked the welfare habit, I’m here to tell you that getting off of the dole is great!