-By Israel Teitelbaum
According to Wikipedia, “The elephant in the room is an English idiom for an obvious truth that is being ignored or goes unaddressed. It is based on the idea that an elephant in a small room would be impossible to overlook. It is sometimes used to refer to a question or problem that is obvious, but which is ignored out of embarrassment or taboo. The idiom also implies a value judgment that the issue ought to be discussed openly. The term is often used to describe an issue that involves a social taboo, such as racism or religion, which everyone understands to be an issue but which no one is willing to admit.”
This is a perfect description of the one issue that most sharply divides the two major parties, but no one is willing to discuss. Whether your issue is self defense, taxes, education or government-run healthcare, your position depends on which side of the culture divide you are on. Those on the right favor less government control and more individual liberty, while those on the left believe that government is the solution to all our problems.
The party that wins this year’s election will either move our nation farther to the left and increase government authority, or hold the line. Our sharp turn to the left began in the 1960’s, and has scarcely stopped turning. Being that our nation’s culture begins with the education of our children, the issue we should be addressing is who should be in control – parents or educrats?
Barack Obama apparently believes education is primarily a governmental responsibility. He claims that taxpayers are not spending enough. Despite the fact that after-inflation spending on public education has more than tripled between 1960 and 2000, while quality has declined, this is still not enough for government to do the job.
In sharp contrast, John McCain believes in parental choice. Parents know best how to raise and educate their children, and government should not be financially coercing parents to send their children to government run schools. Choice will also introduce competition, the engine of free enterprise. Just as competition produces high quality products and services for the lowest possible price, so will parental choice do for education.
Yet, this issue is rarely debated in the presidential campaign. Despite the fact that we are a nation founded on individual and religious liberty, universal school choice – the right of every parent to choose the education that best meets the needs of the individual child – is taboo and not worthy of discussion.
Unfortunately, money and power has created this public perception. Public education is a $600 billion-a-year enterprise, now controlled by the National Education Association and its affiliates. This provides them with a political army consisting of 3.2 million strong, plus family and friends. Lacking a united opposition, this gives them virtual control, not only of education, but also the media and all levels of government – local, county, state and federal.
The only way to level the political playing field is by breaking this monopoly. There is a proposal before the presidential candidates and members of Congress to sponsor the Civil Rights Act for Equal Educational Opportunity. This would require the states to provide equitable educational funding for children in public and non-public schools, while respecting the liberty of schools in hiring and provision of services.
This proposal is based on a plan by the late, great economist Milton Friedman, in an article entitled The Role of Government in Education. “…educational services could be rendered by private enterprises operated for profit, or by non-profit institutions of various kinds. The role of the government would be limited to assuring that the schools met certain minimum standards such as the inclusion of a minimum common content in their programs, much as it now inspects restaurants to assure that they maintain minimum sanitary standards. An excellent example of a program of this sort is the United States educational program for veterans after World War II.”
Friedman’s plan is simple, logical and sure to work because it follows precisely the principles of free enterprise. Just as customers have the freedom to shop where they please, which compels manufactures and suppliers to offer quality products and services for the lowest possible price, so too would parental choice produce the best quality education for the lowest possible cost.
Since Friedman’s article in 1955, our political leaders have poured countless billions into worthless programs that have only led to a decline in education. This is like having experts design an airplane and then building it without following the blueprints, and expecting it to fly.
Voters need to decide which candidate and party to vote for. They ought to have the opportunity to have this issue openly debated. We can make this happen by calling the presidential candidates and our representatives in Congress at 202-224-3121, and urging their sponsorship of the Civil Rights Act for Equal Educational Opportunity – now!
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Israel Teitelbaum is currently creating a new school choice organization to help further the efforts to improve our public schools. His blog will soon be up and running at SchoolChoiceVoter.org. Mr. Teitelbaum can be reached at israel@schoolchoicenj.org.