President Obama on Education

On Monday, September 27, 2010, President Obama said in an interview on the Today Show that money alone cannot fix the problem in government schools. The President called for poor teachers to be fired and more days per year in school. The President sends his two daughters to a private school.

The President did not say “less” money is needed in the government schools because the government always wants more money for the government employees’ salaries and benefits.

The President said more days in school are needed. The more days in school will appeal to parents who think the government should baby sit their children. More days in school will allow the government more opportunity to indoctrinate the young minds on how important and benevolent the government is. It sounds like President Obama is offering the voters something for the November election.

Government schools replace the family. The family is a strong bulwark against a nanny government, as Marx so noted.

The federal government should get out of the education business. Article I, Section 8 of the constitution does not give the federal government any right to be involved in education. The states may confiscate money for education but should not. Governments love to promote their part in education because it appeals to parents who want someone else to share in the cost of educating their children.

Any individual should be allowed to sell their skills as a teacher, without a license from the state. Parents, the consumer, will find the best teachers. There will be plenty of charitable organizations who will teach poor children who cannot afford a private teacher. Television programs and free online sites will teach children.

Businesses are big promoters of government schools. If the government did not teach children to read, businesses think no one would know how to read. Business fear they would have to teach their employees how to read. Nothing could be further from the truth. The market would determine the value of an education and people would get an education by the most efficient means possible. Online education will replace the government schools if the government employees will get out of the way.

"By preventing a free market in education, a handful of social engineers - backed by the industries that profit from compulsory schooling: teacher colleges, textbook publishers, materials suppliers, et al. - has ensured that most of our children will not have an education, even though they may be thoroughly schooled." John Taylor Gatto

Charles Tolleson