Starting at Home

Which is most important to the education of a child: the school? the federal government? the local government? the parents?

Parents and local governments are too inconsistent, some argue, and teachers, ultimately, must do as they're told. So the real power in education must start with the government bureaucracy and politicians. The government, we're told, will assume responsibility for every child, making sure they all receive equal training to be productive members of society.

But the more the federal government gets involved (regulating by the giving and withholding of federal funds) the worse our students perform. Generally speaking, the longer the student is in public schools the lower they perform in relation to students in other countries.

Try to confront this failure and you'll run smack into one of the most powerful unions in history. This union ensures that there is only one answer to every education problem: spend more federal money on it (thereby increasing federal control).

But teachers and parents know intuitively that students are best helped by support from Mom and Dad. Emotional support, security, moral training, and discipline are foundational to well-rounded and well-educated citizens. Ronald Reagan said it best:

Our leaders must remember that education doesn't begin with some isolated bureaucrat in Washington. It doesn't even begin with State or local officials. Education begins in the home, where it's a parental right and responsibility. Both our public and our private schools exist to aid our families in the instruction of our children, and it's time some people back in Washington stopped acting as if family wishes were only getting in the way.

We don't need more money and regulations to manufacture more faceless workers for the state, thoroughly programmed by the state but only barely educated. We need more solid homes in which to nurture solid citizens. To the degree to which we don't have the solid homes necessary, we must have stronger churches and communities. But the problem is better addressed when the government trusts its people to do a better job than it has proven itself incapable of doing.