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Education Lawsuits  - There is a Better Way

By Theresa Fritz Camoriano

A federal judge has ordered the Boyd County, KY High School to let a student homosexual-rights group use the school facilities for its meetings.  The majority of parents and the school board think homosexual activities are immoral, and they do not want their tax money to be used to support the homosexual-rights group.  However, it appears that they will have no choice as long as tax money is being used to support the school.  The court also noted that the homosexual students in the school were being harassed by some of the students who disapprove of homosexual activity, making the school a bad environment for them as well. 

Thomas Jefferson once said, “To compel a man to furnish funds for the propagation of ideas he disbelieves and abhors is sinful and tyrannical.”  Boyd county provides a perfect example of such tyrannical compulsion.  Because all the families are forced to support the school, people with differing beliefs find themselves pitted against each other, and nobody gets what they really want for their children.  The families who disapprove of homosexual behavior are forced to support homosexual-rights education, and the families of homosexual students are forced to support a school where their children are harassed.  If all the families were free to choose a school that supported their own values and beliefs, everyone would be respected, and everyone would be satisfied.  Instead, due to the compulsive nature of our education system, nobody is treated with respect, and people are at each other’s throats and fighting in court, each side trying to be the “winner” in order to force the other side to comply with its views.    

This arrangement is not fair and cannot become fair, no matter what the court finally decides. Any final court decision will result in “winners” and “losers” --  it cannot result in respect for the views of all the parties involved.  The system will require one person’s deeply-held beliefs to be  sacrificed to benefit another.  But none of the students or their families should be losers, and none should be able to “win” by imposing their will and their values on others.  Every single child should have the opportunity for an excellent education, in harmony with his family’s beliefs, and free from harassment. 

So what is the solution?  How can people with such strongly opposed views coexist in peace?  The answer is to end the compulsion and to recognize that education is far too important to be controlled by the government.   The families who believe homosexual activity is wrong should not be forced to subsidize the homosexual rights agenda, and the families of homosexual students should not be forced to subsidize their harassers. 

Of course, the homosexual-rights issue is not the only issue over which there are fierce disputes and lawsuits currently pending in Kentucky courts in the area of education.  Many other areas of conflict cause enough anger and frustration to prompt lawsuits.  For example, there also are lawsuits in which families are suing to require the state to spend more money on education, saying that the state is not providing their children a proper education.  While is clear that the students are not receiving an adequate education, it certainly is not for lack of money, so even if those families win that lawsuit their children will not be better off.  We are spending more money on education today than ever before, with very disappointing results.  The problem is not the amount of money but rather the compulsion-based monopoly education system that prevents choice and competition and fails to respect every child’s special needs.  One has to wonder, if the enormous amount of money that is currently being spent on education is not enough (roughly 70% of the state’s budget), what amount, if any, will ever be enough, particularly when private schools currently do an excellent job for far less money. 

There also are lawsuits in which families are challenging racial guidelines that are used to assign students to schools, saying that their children have been excluded from their preferred government school due to race.  And there are lawsuits about the posting of the ten commandments in schools.  Again, these disputes are caused by the compulsion inherent in a government-controlled education system.  We don’t have similar lawsuits about the services offered by dentists, or lawn care companies, or auto mechanics, because, in the free market, people are not compelled to buy services they don’t like.  If a family wants organic pest control, it is not compelled to hire someone to spray harsh chemicals on its lawn.  If a person can only tolerate dental care when he is completely knocked out, he can choose a dentist that offers that type of service and is not forced to face the dental drill wide awake.  If a person is not satisfied with a particular auto mechanic, he is not forced to return repeatedly and continue spending more and more money with unsatisfactory results.  Only in education, which is the most important service we buy for our children, do we allow our hands to be tied by intrusive government compulsion.  Education is the area in which we are trying to pass our values on to our children and prepare them for their lives.  How can we allow the state to override our wishes in this most personal and most vital area?  Why do we continue to tolerate it? 

Of course, it is not only the students and families who suffer from the current compulsion-based education system.  Teachers also deserve better.  Teachers should not be bogged down with the government’s bureaucratic mandates and should be free to teach children in a manner that they and the parents think is best. 

The entire community also suffers from the present system, in which we are forced to continue spending ever-increasing resources while receiving very poor results.  Do we continue to allow such intrusion into our lives because we think it is the only way to obtain a good education for children?  If so, then we are like the slaves who accepted the institution of slavery simply because it had existed for as long as anyone could remember. 

We should not assume that, just because we have tolerated the tyranny of compulsion-based government education for the past hundred-plus years, it is the best or only way to educate our children.  The fact is that a compulsion-based education system is very bad for children and their families.  It wastes precious resources.  It pits neighbors against each other.  And, most importantly, it fails to provide children with a good preparation for life.  It is now time to end the compulsion-based education system that is doing so much harm.  Our children deserve better.  Our teachers deserve better.  Our communities deserve better. 

Under the current Kentucky constitution, the state has an affirmative obligation to provide an education to all children, which means that the current constitution requires us all to remain enslaved in the compulsion-based education system.  The way to solve the problem is to amend the Kentucky constitution to end state control of education, so that parents, as consumers, will have control over their children’s education. 

Of course, there is concern about how low income families would be able to educate their children if the current system were ended, but we should recognize that low income families are harmed the most by the current system, where their children are trapped, generally receive the poorest quality education, and are frequently allowed to “fall through the cracks”.  Remember, when slavery was still in existence, many people worried how the slaves would be able to care for themselves if they were deprived of the institution that “took care of them”.   The current compulsion-based education system is very bad for low income families, just as the compulsion-based system of slavery was very bad for the slaves.  Low income families, like all families, would be far better off under a free market education system, where a wide variety of educational opportunities would exist, and where their children would be treated with respect and would be eligible for scholarships and other forms of assistance.  They would no longer be expected to fail because they were poor.  They would no longer be shortchanged on resources simply because their parents had little political clout and could not afford to move to a nicer neighborhood.

Compulsion and tyranny are not necessary in order to provide a good education to low income children. Last week, in the “notices” section of JeffersonReview.com, there was a fascinating account of the tremendous success that people in the slums of Asia and Africa are having with private education.  If those people, in such poor countries, with so few resources, are able to be so successful in providing a free-market education for their children, there can be no question that we in the U.S., with such tremendous resources at our disposal, will be very successful in providing education to poor children once we break the chains of our compulsion-based system.

Just imagine what opportunities would become available if students and their families were freed from the current compulsion-based education system!  Imagine parents being able to choose an educational environment that would foster a love of learning in their children, where their children would be treated with respect -- not attacked for the values they hold dear, and where the teaching methods would be matched to the child rather than trying to force the child into a one-size-fits-all education factory.  Imagine teachers teaching their students important moral values, and students learning to think and reason for themselves rather than learning to puppet the party line.  It would be nothing short of revolutionary, and it could be accomplished in a bloodless manner, if the majority of people ever came to the realization that it was the right thing to do. 

Do you want to see this educational revolution happen?  Do you want these exciting opportunities made available to children? Do you want to put an end to the bureaucracy, red tape, strife, conflict, and enslavement inherent in our current compulsion-based education system? Then take action. Talk to your friends and neighbors and explain both the problem and the solution.  Then ask them to contact their elected officials and request a constitutional amendment to create educational freedom.  Just as slavery was abolished peacefully in many countries of the world, and just as religious freedom became accepted in the West, educational freedom can happen if enough people understand the need and work toward that end.  The result will be not just a tremendous improvement in education but also a tremendous improvement in every sphere, because free people are stronger, more productive, more confident, more able to realize their potential, and more alive in every sense than are slaves.

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