Educational Utopia: A Unicorn or a Possibility?

I recently participated in a state legislative meeting where several individuals, including myself, expressed concern about the potential pitfalls and negative secondary effects of an Education Savings Account bill that was being considered by my state’s Joint Education Committee.

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One of the committee members asked another person who testified the following question: “Is it best if we just go ahead, and as a state, just get rid of public education, and just go ahead as a legislature contract out to private education, it sounds like obviously private is the way to go, so then we wouldn’t have to deal with all that funding of buildings and everything, just contract out to the private and let them do it, you know. Would you be in favor of something like that?” ~ Representative Ryan Berger (R-WY House Dist. 49, Nov 14, 2023)

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Although I believe the question was asked disingenuously, with a tone of sarcasm as I perceived it, (you may hear the question yourself on the recording at https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Wh4GT13-0qA timestamp 4:38:10 to make that determination yourself), the person to whom that question was posed responded respectfully that the position she was advocating for all school choice.

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Because this question was not directed at me, I did not answer it in the committee meeting, but I would like to answer it here. Yes, Representative Berger, the scenario you describe would be a better way to go.

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If I had to describe an educational utopia it would be a parent-directed, privately-funded, free market-enabled system of education whereby each child could receive individually tailored instruction, that would capitalize on the student’s God-given talents and interests while simultaneously assisting them in any identified areas of need. All of which would be guided by those who know the child the best and have the greatest vested interest in the outcome of that child’s education--the parent.

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Some might say that this is less of a utopia and more of a unicorn, but I would beg to differ. This idyllic educational scenario exists in home education environment all over our state, our country, and even our world. Now, I am no fool to think that the government schooling system, to which we have become accustomed, is going to go away overnight, but I do suggest that an obviously failing system needs to look at how and why home education has been successful and make some moves in that direction for the sake of the children. ?

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Evidence that the system is failing is available in daily media reports of violence and assault in our schools, and even from our own nation’s system of evaluating. Read the most recent version of the National Assessment of Educational Progress (https://nces.ed.gov/nationsreportcard/). Earlier in this same legislative session, there was testimony about how the school’s failure in teaching reading led to student depression, suicidal ideation, and completed suicides.

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Evidence of home education’s success is also well documented. Most notably, ( NHERI - National Home Education Research Institute ) has a 30-year track record of producing, collating, and publishing research on home education and the conclusions are pretty clear. The home-educated typically score 15 to 25 percentile points above public-school students on standardized academic achievement tests (Ray, 2015). Additionally, 78% of peer-reviewed studies on academic achievement show homeschool students perform statistically significantly better than those in institutional schools (Ray, 2017).

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To address Representative Berger’s question: from a policy perspective, the more education can move from a centralized system (government schooling) to a decentralized system (the apex of which is parent-directed, privately-funded home education), the closer we will be to the ideal system. Obviously, there are points along that spectrum at which many might stop. For instance, a family might choose a private school at their own expense while simultaneously being taxed to support government schooling. Most will do this without a clamorous call for exactly how unjust this is. Others who feel they can, will home educate with a similar resolve that paying taxes for government schooling is an inevitability.

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I have previously written about why I oppose government school choice programs, and it is not because I wish people less choice, but more freedom. As I stated in my testimony at this meeting, one cannot gain freedom by sacrificing freedom, lest he find himself ensnared in a different bondage. I also stated in my testimony that I would continue recommending that home educators not utilize programs, like the one that was being proposed, because of the invariable encumbrances such as legal agreements with the state, mandatory standardized testing, and opening themselves up to investigative regimes that can be activated by anonymous accusations.

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So, my open response to Representative Berger is that we do need to move away from government control of education. The first step would be to eliminate the federal Department of Education and delegate all educational decisions to the states. I know that is out of the prevue of our state legislature, but not our federal representative and senators. Whether that is accomplished or not, I believe the state could move to extricate itself from most educational funding and leave it to local counties or cities and that the educational system in each local area should become accountable to the people, specifically the parents for all decision regarding the education of their children.

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In the end, I believe it is incumbent upon parents to take whatever steps are necessary to direct the education of their children. This might include difficult and sacrificial decisions for as long as the current system of government schooling remains a near monopoly. Communities should band together to provide alternatives and entrepreneurs should develop supportive options. In the end, I would implore parents and those involved in education not to adopt the public schooling model, with its educationally ineffective schooling paradigms, but rather follow the flexibility and ingenuity of home educators who have demonstrated what home education can accomplish when it is not a carbon copy of what happens in schoolhouses.

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References:

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Ray, Brian D. (2015). African American homeschool parents’ motivations for homeschooling and their Black children’s academic achievement. Journal of School Choice, 9:71–96

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Ray, Brian D. (2017). A systematic review of the empirical research on selected aspects of homeschooling as a school choice. Journal of School Choice, 11(4), 604-621