[Lamar] Alexander and [Rand] Paul gushed about publicly financed, privately led charters for more than an hour as they heard Nashville charter leaders discuss their longer school days and freedom to set curriculum. Parents and former students chimed in with personal stories on how school choice changed their lives.[...]Note well, this isn't the position advanced by libertarians such as Murray Rothbard. This is still government involvement in the education sector.
“As I listen to the conversation, you don’t really hear any downsides about the charter schools,” said Paul.[...] “It seems to all be good."
“I’m going to try to take this back to Kentucky and see if we can get charter schools in Kentucky."
Rand's position here is terrible. It promotes the idea that government education wrapped in "charter school" talk is significantly different than plain old public school education. They both should be called what they are: government influenced education via government money.
And further, the Rand/Alexander discussion remains in the realm of compulsory education.
As Rothbard put it: in Education: Free and Compulsory:
The record of the development of compulsory education is a record of State usurpation of parental control over children on behalf of its own; an imposition of uniformity and equality to repress individual growth; and the development of techniques to hinder the growth of reasoning power and independent thought among the children.
We have government-financed universities, government-financed doctors, government-financed bomb manufacturers, government-financed banks, government-financed soybeans, government-financed wars, a government-financed lawyer industry, well, not to go on. What's not to like about government financing?
ReplyDeleteWill Rand win any ideological battles with principled folks? No. Will school choice advance freedom for the people of Kentucky? Yes.
ReplyDeleteIt's a step in the right direction...not really sure it's worth roasting as far more politicians boast way more egregious moral judgements.