The state’s mechanism for school takeovers is already in place – the Department of Education (DoE), created in a fairly transparent quid pro quo between then Democratic Vice Presidential nominee Walter Mondale and the National Education Association (NEA), the largest labor union in the United States. This was the first endorsement it had ever given for a presidential candidate, support that they renewed in 1980, when Carter ran for re-election against anti-DoE candidate and future President Ronald Reagan.
One of Ronald Reagan’s most public and high-profile failures was his inability to destroy the DoE. There was very little enthusiasm for the creation of the Department of Education. However, there was virtually none – other than Reagan and his Secretary of Education appointee Terrel H. Bell – whose sole mission was to dismantle the Department and replace it with something more like the National Science Foundation.
Roughly 35 years later, the budget for the entire Department of Education stood at $70.7 billion in 2016. This did not include an additional $75 billion in pre-K education over the course of 10 years.
This is mostly spent on pushing a far-left agenda. The Mises Institute has thoroughly documented the 35 years of leftist bias at the DoE. Much of the civics curriculum is dedicated to a denunciation of America’s Founding Fathers, and a focus on slavery, racism and colonialism. The United States Constitution is not a core part of the curriculum. Great works of American literature are routinely barred in the public schools, including The Adventures of Huckleberry Finn, Moby Dick, and The Great Gatsby.
It’s worth briefly noting that the National Education Association is the largest union in the country and wields an enormous amount of power when it comes to education policy in the United States. After all, they got a cabinet-level department created. They have been effectively able to prevent merit pay for teachers – credentials count more than performance when calculating pay. In many states, union membership is effectively mandatory, in as much as teachers are bound by collective bargaining agreements.
Between 2004 and 2016, political donations by teachers unions grew from $4.3 million to $32 million. 94 percent of all contributions, going back to 1990, went to Democrats.
As you might expect, the entire process for allocating funds to schools is Byzantine and difficult to understand. All told, states and local schools aren’t really relying on federal funds to get kids educated – most of the money for public schools comes from pernicious property taxes, whereby the government effectively requires you to pay rent on property that you already own. Approximately 10 percent of state education budgets come from the federal government.
Funds aren’t allocated in any systematic way. They’re allocated on the basis of State Education Agencies (SEAs) filing what are basically grant requests from the federal government, based on anticipated “needs.” Some income formulas are used in this process, but they do not represent the whole of how funds are allocated. The SEAs allocate their funds largely on the basis of income, to what are called Local Education Agencies (LEAs). These agencies then allocate funds using no less than four different formulas based on income and census reports.
The final result is that money is allocated for schools in a manner that favors the least well performing. This is very much in keeping with the radical, left-wing, redistributionist agenda of the teachers unions. In the American public education system, there is simply no mechanism in place that encourages excellence. There is only a system which rewards mediocrity – the ability to pass a standardized test that, it’s assumed, “everyone,” from the smallest town in rural Mississippi to the ritziest neighborhood in Manhattan, ought to be able to pass at the same rates.
Some states allocate need based on a “per-pupil cost.” Perhaps somewhat unsurprisingly, the highest figure can be found in our nation’s capital: the District of Columbia gets $19,000 a head for its public school students. Some businesses exist to help school districts navigate this difficult process to get the biggest share of federal funds possible.
This is now the prerequisite to getting into college – passing the standardized test. It’s worth noting that the largest expenditure of federal funds on education is the Pell Grant, which has devalued a college education significantly while driving soaring tuition fees.
It is worth noting that homeschoolers typically exceed their government school counterparts in virtually all respects. In fourth and eighth grade reading and math, Catholic schools significantly outperformed public schools for both proficient and advanced students. A Cato Institute report stated that private schools out-performed public schools with regard to graduation rates, college matriculation, future income and parent satisfaction. This is not surprising, as homeschooled children and privately educated children exist in a bonafide marketplace of ideas. The publicly funded government schools show barely any divergence in terms of what they teach. This is increasingly true thanks to programs like “No Child Left Behind” and Common Core, both of which mandate a very narrow set of ideas and concepts to be taught in public schools.
Whether or not to educate one’s children in the government school monopoly is a choice every family must make. But, as with any important decision, parents should take into account the totality of the facts. The history of public education in the United States is one of coercion, extortion, and indoctrination.
Beyond such ideological objections to the government school monopoly, private schools tend to be safer, less violent, and better performing than their government alternatives. After all, who is going to choose to spend money on a school where their children are subject to violence, poor education standards, and constant grooming for the police state in the form of what are now ubiquitous active shooter drills. As the Cato Institute points out, there are 30 years of consistent evidence that private schools, beyond simply providing a better learning environment through safety and greater alignment with parent values, also provide a higher quality of education.
Even though not every family can afford a private education, private schools and homeschooling should be considered as a serious alternative. Evaluate the cost and benefits of homeschooling from the perspective of a loss of income. Find private grants and scholarships, in addition to the vouchers you might be eligible for. The point is to think flexibly about it and see if this is indeed an option for your family.
Even where the cost is great, the trade-off for removing your child from the government school monopoly might be well worth it.
I was fortunate. We raised our children in a small town with a small town school. We knew every teacher, bus driver, coaches, etc.
They did not get swayed by drive by politics or ideas and opinions out of some adult’s mind.
Good post. Critical to keep an eye and ear on all your children’s friends. Hang out. School doings. There were bumps along the way. Such is family life. All 4 of them are solid citizens and know right from wrong.
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