Harry Browne on Education 2000 Libertarian Nominee for President

Sub-sections under Education:
• School Choice
• Other issues under Education

National standards imply states can’t do it themselves

A: Education is a state and local issue, so that’s a veto.

Q: So the veto is based on states’ rights?

A: The 9th & 10th Amendments prohibit the federal government from taking on a lot of functions, except those specifically enumerated for the federal government. Education is not one of those enumerated functions. When Bush says he wants to set a “standard,” he’s saying that the state government isn’t smart enough to do it itself.

Separation of school & state: No Ten Commandments

Separate school and state

On college: “By ending the income tax most families will have the resources necessary to choose the college they want. Government involvement has increased the cost of higher education.”

On religion in schools: “We should separate school & state so individuals can make the right choices for themselves & their children.”

Government educates our children badly

Let people who care run our schools instead of government

No School Prayer Amendment

Remove the federal government from education entirely

Teaching non-academic topics is cause of declining SATs

Learning, as measured by Scholastic Aptitude Test (SAT) scores, steadily declined throughout the 1960s and 1970s. [I attribute this to] the federal government’s heavy hand transforming the public schools and the private schools as they became dependent on it. Yesterday’s schools focused on reading, writing, arithmetic, history, and geography. Today’s schools spend much more time teaching children:
• To be citizens of the world
• To be sensitive to people who are different than themselves
• To pester their parents to recycle cans and bottles
• To understand how western civilization destroyed a peaceful North American continent
• To report their parents if they catch them using drugs
• To practice safe sex.

Importance of education no reason for govt control

Imagine what it would be like. The food stores would become what the schools have become. Political battles would decide which foods are available. If you don’t like the choices, you’d have to attend “food board” meetings. Food would become more and more expensive, even as the quality deteriorated. And don’t get caught praying in a supermarket.

Now let’s reverse the picture. Imagine instead that schools were operated like today’s supermarkets. Most school systems would offer a variety of approaches to any one subject-just as a supermarket offers a variety of brands for any one food item. And if you didn’t like what one school offered, or if you didn’t like the way your child was treated, you could patronize another school.

Vouchers will result in govt control of private schools

Look at what has happened to colleges. Since 1975, if a single student at a college-public or private-receives any kind of government grant (even if the money doesn’t pass through the college), the school must comply with a long, long list of federal rules. It might seem that any private elementary school could just drop out of a voucher program if the federal government began imposing oppressive controls. In principle, it could. And so could colleges resist controls by dropping out of aid programs. But colleges don’t drop out. Once it’s become dependent on the manna from Washington, no college will turn it down-no matter how bad the controls become. For example, VMI and the Citadel were forced to overturn their most basic policies. Either could have evaded by rejecting federal aid, but neither did.

Private vouchers do more to educate poor than govt does

Far more children attend private schools today through private voucher programs than through government voucher programs. Numerous agencies administer programs to put poor children in private schools-programs paid for by private companies.

And all this is achieved while government drains 47% of the national income from us in taxes. Suppose that tax load were cut in half-by repealing the federal income tax and local school taxes. Can you imagine how much money would be available to take care of any child in need of a good education?

Vouchers are just another way to attach federal strings

A: Harry Browne is opposed to vouchers, because anytime government money goes anywhere, there are strings attached. Vouchers would be used as a means of exerting federal control over private and parochial schools.

Better schools without vouchers by removing federal govt

Federal involvement in schools doesn’t work

Give parents “total” control over school selection

Q: There are millions of children in government-run schools right now-how best to deal with those kids’ education? A: I believe that the Department of Education should be closed. Trust me, that would be a big step in improving education in this country. Test scores seem to bear a close relationship with federal money spent - the more we spend the worse they get.
But I also believe it is important to empower parents and families. Ending all income taxes would do more to create prosperity in the general economy and improve the family budget than any step any Republican or Democrat politician is proposing today. Just to start with, many parents with more money available would choose a different school for their children.

Get government out of education so parents can choose

Repeal taxes so parents can afford any school they choose

Vouchers better than public schools; no govt is best

Feds out of education and states out of education

There are two important changes that must be made to improve education:
1. The federal government must get completely out of education. It has made a bad situation much worse. And it has no Constitutional authority to meddle in education in any way- even if it were capable of helping.
2. Federal taxes must be lowered dramatically so that parents have the ability to finance their children’s education directly.

Once we make these reforms, it will be up to the people in each state to decide what educational system is best.
• Some states will revert to the kind of education provided before the federal government took over-with public schools that reflect local values and circumstances.
• Some states will adopt a voucher system, in order to enhance freedom of choice and lessen dependence on government.
• And some states will withdraw from education altogether-reducing taxes so parents can buy whatever education they want for their children.