Public Education Reform

Our fundamental dispute with the public education system is that it lacks liberty. Humans should be free to learn what they want to learn, taught by their chosen method, by their chosen instructors. Rules and regulations must be determined by the real customers of the system, parents and students, not by bureaucrats, politicians and teachers unions. Their laws are created to ensure their position and influence, with education as a secondary concern. Current public education leaders usually oppose solutions involving freedom because it will minimize their influence. It's an understandable human response, but it makes progress difficult.

The libertarian direction of change involves the following:

1. Make local teachers, parents and students responsible for curriculum

• Education 'experts' need to compete for teachers, parents and students attention, not the other way around. Parents know what might work best for their children. Parents have their best interest at heart and will not put politics ahead of their children. That is not always the case with 'experts'.
• Currently, many parents accept what others decide for their children. However, many people want something different, but are not given a choice. We must move away from that pattern of operation. Parents and students are the real customers, not the people in DC or Olympia.
• The most successful business or system is the one that best responds to their customers' needs.

2. Make parents and students responsible for their own money

• People are more careful where they spend their own money. When politicians accept campaign donations to unwisely spend public education money, every single citizen is pick-pocketed. On the other hand, if citizens are 'allowed' to use their own money, only the unwise are duped. The end result is that more money is spent on education and less in back room deals.

3. Make parents and local teachers responsible for determining teaching effectiveness

• Standardized tests should be one tool in determining education effectiveness, not the sole factor. Tests then become the focus and not what parents and students want the curriculum to be. It effectively blocks freedom.
• Parents and teachers want their children to succeed the most so they should be the ones to determine effectiveness. It's their responsibility anyway.
• When education bureaucrats are federally appointed, the motivations are more related to politics than education, especially when billions of dollars are involved. It allows for corruption and removes control from the true customers, the student and parent.
• Libertarians are not necessarily opposed to standardized tests. Liberty requires that people are given the choice of test they want. The current system makes the decision for students, parents and teachers. That is how you treat children, not free citizens.

What we desire as a political party is to help politicians and policymakers improve the public education system through actions that lead in the above three directions. Here's our strategy:

A. Create a committee to head this project, including libertarians and anyone else who wants to help. Contact us for details if you would like to help.

B. The committee will gather and analyze information about the current system, and plan on how to help politicians change it.

C. The committee will work with policy-makers to implement actions that will lead to the above three directions.

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