Educational Reform

America's educational system is broken with little hope of recovery short of a complete re-tooling of how we educate.

In point of fact, the American educational system is so abysmal that it is difficult to envision how pursuing other educational alternatives could leave us further from the goal of an educated and cultured citizenry than what we are currently pursuing.

Accepting the failure of American education - which has been documented and chronicled by many authors - compels all Americans to think about educational reform.

With that in mind, I offer below a platform for educational renewal, intended to revamp the way we educate children in this country.

I offer these ideas as a way to kick off conversation on how we might once again foster an environment where children can learn what they believe and why they believe it, and where the development of character goes hand in hand accruing knowledge:

1. I contend that we should pass family friendly legislation that clearly articulates that the primary responsibility for the education of children belongs to parents. Such legislation would clearly state that the education of children does not fall under the jurisdiction of the state's authority. This legislation would have a threefold effect. First, it would end the state's virtual monopoly of education. Second, such legislation would transfer the control teacher's unions exert over the education process to parents and families, where it belongs. Third, it would create a true free market of schooling options where parents would have the opportunity to shop for the best educational choices for their families.
2. I propose passing family friendly legislation that excuses parents, who privately finance their children's education, from paying taxes that are earmarked to finance government schools. It is the apex of tyranny to force families to finance government schools they do not use and fund that which propagates ideologies to which they are adamantly opposed.
3. I propose passing family friendly legislation that removes all laws intended to regulate families who home school. It is as outside the jurisdiction of the state to micromanage the affairs of family life as it is outside the jurisdiction of the church to micromanage the affairs of the state.
4. I submit that state boards of education should be terminated. As parents ought to be controlling their children's education, and as we envision a free market for education where decentralization allows for the rise of niche alternatives in schooling that will be sensitive to parent's goals for their children, and as our intent is to separate the state from education, there will no longer be a need for state boards of education to set educational standards and curricula for state school districts. Should parents in a given community decide to run an educational co-op in order to provide classroom settings for their children, they are perfectly capable of making their own decisions regarding educational standards and curricula without the assistance of the state. This has the distinct advantage of making all oversight local and insures that teachers will be more responsive to the concerns of parents.
5. I suggest that all state departments of education should be terminated. Since all state standards are eliminated, there will no longer be a need for the state bureaucrats and apparatchiks to apportion funding to insure state standards are met, or to mete out penalties when the standards are not met and therefore no need for state departments of education. This change in policy would save the taxpayers money, return the control of schools to local communities and increase the difficulty of the federal Department of Education to enforce national standards and curricula. This in turn could lead to the demise of the federal Department of Education, which has been a stated goal of conservatives from Reagan to the architects of the Contract With America. Further, the termination of all state departments of education could be a positive step toward ending the church state union that currently exists between the religion of secular humanism and federal and state governments.
6. I propose that we should remove all legal requirements that teachers must be certified by the state. Teacher testing has proven that this well-meaning requirement is meaningless. Parents are perfectly capable to determine who is qualified to teach their children and who is not. Ending the civil government's interference in this area will give parents the ability to ensure that their children receive the best possible education from a variety of creative educational choices.

Constitution Party of Michigan - www.ConstitutionPartyMI.net