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Contents
Of course, the best proposals would allow parents to exercise more control over their children's education. Several alternatives are being proposed at this time. School tuition vouchers and/or tax credits would allow parents to send their children to any school of their choice, public, private or religious. By allowing choice, parents would be voting with their dollars and poor schools would have to bring their standards up or face closure.
This plan is not without controversy, even among free-marketeers. Vouchers were first suggested by Milton Friedman in 1955, but some reformers argue that they would create a larger bureaucracy and a greater dependency on government. The latter group would rather see a complete separation of school and state.
Another interesting option that has been slowly gaining popularity is the charter school. A charter school is created from scratch with parents, teachers, and other members of the community working together to create a new school where the only focus is education. These schools are still government funded, but are exempt from some of the regulations applicable to public schools. With the number of states passing charter school laws increasing, this idea seems to be growing quickly.
Besides traditional private schools, the final major option is for parents to keep their children at home. Homeschooling is becoming very popular -- networks of parents who homeschool are popping up everywhere. These networks are sometimes used as clearinghouses of information, but more and more, they are being used to supplement homeschool educations. Parents bring their children together to increase socialization skills and to allow for special topics, such as art or music, to be taught by an expert.
Although many people, tired of waiting, do decide to pull their children out of public schools, not everyone has that option. Most everyone agrees that some sort of public school reform must happen. Some free-marketeers consider charter schools a stepping stone for education reform, but most believe that unless there is free choice through vouchers or separation of school and state, children will still be at the mercy of government bureaucrats. The work below shows ways to give everyone choice in education.
The Heartland Institute gets free-market research into the hands of editors, reporters, and state elected officials from New York to California. They are currently working on all aspects of school reform from finance reform to improving the quality of education in public schools.
Heartland now publishes School Reform News, a newsletter promoting reform efforts nationwide. The April Issue contains general articles about reform as well as news from the frontlines about progress and setbacks in the process of reform.
A large collection of op-ed pieces written by Heartland staffers can be found in the Heartland Perspective. Highlights include Six Myths of School Finance Reform and Competition, Not Money, Works Wonders in Education.
Joseph Bast, Heartland's president, co-authored a policy paper for the Cato Institute debating the effect of vouchers on government intrusion. This paper can be found below under The Cato Institute.
A number of articles have also appeared in Intellectual Ammunition, Heartland's journal that reviews the work of free-market policy groups and also offers original articles and columns on important issues.
Under the direction of Cato executive vice president David Boaz, the Institute has become a national leader in exploring and promoting market-based public policy alternatives involving privatization, school choice and competition, and the creation of charter schools.
Recent publications include:
As part of their latest Cato Handbook for Congress, Cato outlines changes that need to be on the federal level to return control of schools to the local level in a chapter titled Department of Education.
Cato scholars have also published two recent books on educational reform.
The Mackinac Center for Public Policy
The Mackinac Center for Public Policy is committed to delivering the highest quality and most reliable research on Michigan issues. As a state-based group, education is one of their primary issues. Most of this education information applies just as well to rest of the country.
Their main page on Education contains a large number of studies and commentaries, a few of these are summarized below.
Reason is the premier libertarian magazine and one of the best Web sites for libertarian commentary.
In the January 1997 issue, Rick Henderson has an article titled Schools of Thought that discussed the tactics being used by the pro-voucher reform groups and the resistance they are facing from the education establishment.
Britton Manasco writes about the reasons why parents choose homeschooling over government schools for their children in this July 1996 article, Special Ed.
Champion of Choice -- Shaking Up Milwaukee's Schools is an interview with Polly Williams, Wisconsin State Representative and one of the architects of the Milwaukee school choice program.
Laissez Faire offers a large selection of books on libertarian issues and free-market economics.
Their Education page offers a large variety of books on the subject of school reform.
Education reform is a very important issue that many groups and think-tanks have weighed in on. Below are highlights of their work.
The highlight of Heritage's education coverage is School Choice Programs: What's Happening in the States, a summary of the efforts going in each state.
Their 1996 Candidate Briefing Book contains an outline of all of the important issues related to fixing America's schools in the chapter titled Education.
Heritage has published several recent papers on the benefits of vouchers for poor children.
Policy analyst Christine Olson has written several papers on reducing the federal role in local education issues.
A sixteen year-old Cascade intern explains why he is leaving school in this opinion piece from the Oregonian titled I Can't Do It Anymore
Cascade president Steve Buckstein ponders what the world would be like if the government controlled food distribution as it does education in Imagine a World...
Last summer, education was the Issue of the Week. It provides a good background the issue and some of the opposing viewpoints.
Education -- Issue Analysis provides additional resources on reforming education.
Phyllis Schlafly's Eagle Forum is dedicated to improving education, promoting both choice and offering support to those who choose homeschooling. The Education Reporter is their primary publication on this issue.
Two recent issues of IC's Issue of the Week highlighted education reform.
The Separation of School & State Alliance
The Education Liberator is their monthly publication dedicated to removing control of education from the government completely.
The Dissenters' Education Research Information Clearinghouse is a searchable index of all of their articles related to school reform.
National Center for Policy Analysis
Choice in Education contains links to articles on various issues related to school choice alternatives.
School Management and Control has articles about privatization, local control and teacher union resistance.
Homeschooling Information and Homeschooling Resource Pages contains introductory information on homeschooling.
The Center for Education Reform has excellent information on School Choice and Charter Schools.
The Educational Excellence Network has some great resources related to school reform and charter schools.
Other links of interest:
"We Don't Need No (Public) Education" by J.D. Tuccille
In December 2004 this page was modified significantly from its original form for archiving purposes.
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