Classroom in Winston-Salem, North Carolina, United States GETTY IMAGES
Newsweek | By Alex Newman | April 16, 2024
With millions of families fleeing public schools in recent years and millions more set to join the exodus in the years ahead, the debate around public education is shifting dramatically. That is bad news for the education establishment. But it can be great news for children—and the country.
While Americans once argued about how best to fix the system, today's discussions—especially among conservatives and Christians—often revolve around finding the fastest way to get children out. Almost two-thirds of Americans are dissatisfied with the quality of public education. Even liberals are rapidly losing trust in the schools.
The reasons for this trend are not hard to see. On academics alone, the system is a dumpster fire. The federal government's own National Assessment of Educational Progress shows only about one in three students are "proficient" in core subjects.
But the academic disaster is just the tip of the iceberg.
One in ten students have encountered sexual misconduct by a faculty member, U.S. Department of Education research shows. Violence and crime in school are exploding. Highly sexualized books and lessons have outraged even the most tolerant parents. And suicide, once unthinkable among young people, is now a leading cause of death in children.
Public schools have become, in effect, burning buildings. As children suffer academically and in countless other ways, millions of parents are frantically trying to figure out how to protect their young.
The multi-billion-dollar question, then, is what should be done?
For generations, educational "reformers" have sought to "fix" the system. Countless activist hours and untold billions of dollars have been expended on so-called solutions. Yet, as any parent or teacher will tell you, schools just keep getting worse. Clearly, protesting at school board meetings has not worked.
But what if the system is not actually broken? What if it is doing exactly what the people running it want—turning young Americans against their faith, family, and freedoms? If the diagnoses have all been wrong so far, the treatments must be re-considered as well.
In fact, the individuals who dreamed up and created the current system—from Horace Mann and John Dewey to today's left-wing "reformers"—had a very different view of education than everyday Americans. They saw the system as a tool for social change.
Even if those who established and ran the system wanted well-educated Americans, the model is flawed. Like collective farming in the Soviet Union, history has shown repeatedly that government does a poor job at just about everything.
The solution to failed communal farms was not "reform." Instead, it was to restore proper incentives that increase quality, decrease costs, and multiply choices. Only a free-market approach led by parents and voluntary organizations can do this.
The idea is hardly as radical as it may seem at first glance. For centuries in America, families and churches were almost entirely responsible for education. That approach produced the most literate, moral, and educated population in history. America's Founding Fathers were products of this non-system.
With millions of families fleeing public schools in recent years and millions more set to join the exodus in the years ahead, the debate around public education is shifting dramatically. That is bad news for the education establishment. But it can be great news for children—and the country.
While Americans once argued about how best to fix the system, today's discussions—especially among conservatives and Christians—often revolve around finding the fastest way to get children out. Almost two-thirds of Americans are dissatisfied with the quality of public education. Even liberals are rapidly losing trust in the schools.
The reasons for this trend are not hard to see. On academics alone, the system is a dumpster fire. The federal government's own National Assessment of Educational Progress shows only about one in three students are "proficient" in core subjects.
But the academic disaster is just the tip of the iceberg.
One in ten students have encountered sexual misconduct by a faculty member, U.S. Department of Education research shows. Violence and crime in school are exploding. Highly sexualized books and lessons have outraged even the most tolerant parents. And suicide, once unthinkable among young people, is now a leading cause of death in children.
Public schools have become, in effect, burning buildings. As children suffer academically and in countless other ways, millions of parents are frantically trying to figure out how to protect their young.
The multi-billion-dollar question, then, is what should be done?
For generations, educational "reformers" have sought to "fix" the system. Countless activist hours and untold billions of dollars have been expended on so-called solutions. Yet, as any parent or teacher will tell you, schools just keep getting worse. Clearly, protesting at school board meetings has not worked.
But what if the system is not actually broken? What if it is doing exactly what the people running it want—turning young Americans against their faith, family, and freedoms? If the diagnoses have all been wrong so far, the treatments must be re-considered as well.
In fact, the individuals who dreamed up and created the current system—from Horace Mann and John Dewey to today's left-wing "reformers"—had a very different view of education than everyday Americans. They saw the system as a tool for social change.
Even if those who established and ran the system wanted well-educated Americans, the model is flawed. Like collective farming in the Soviet Union, history has shown repeatedly that government does a poor job at just about everything.
The solution to failed communal farms was not "reform." Instead, it was to restore proper incentives that increase quality, decrease costs, and multiply choices. Only a free-market approach led by parents and voluntary organizations can do this.
Classroom in Winston-Salem, North Carolina, United States GETTY IMAGES
The idea is hardly as radical as it may seem at first glance. For centuries in America, families and churches were almost entirely responsible for education. That approach produced the most literate, moral, and educated population in history. America's Founding Fathers were products of this non-system.
Powerful voices are increasingly calling for radical change. Multiple times before he passed, talk-radio titan Rush Limbaugh urged parents to remove their children from public schools. Amid New Jersey's push for LGBT programming in schools, Franklin Graham, the nation's most prominent evangelical, said he would send his children to a Christian school.
In academia, a chorus seeking real change is growing as well. Columbia Law Professor Philip Hamburger argues that public schools threaten parents' First Amendment rights. The reason: they improperly pressure parents into substituting government speech for their own in raising children.
Top government officials have made similar arguments. Former U.S. Attorney General Bill Barr says the escalating hostility to faith and values of parents—the vast majority of whom identify as Christian—makes the system unconstitutional. In a 2021 speech, he called the "militant and extreme secular-progressive climate of our state-run education system" the "greatest threat to religious liberty in America today."
Countless church and state leaders have come to similar conclusions. That is why more and more states including powerhouses such as Florida and Texas are moving toward "school choice." Under this system, government provides tax money for homeschooling or private schools.
To the extent that this policy removes children from government schools, it may be helpful for some. But as experience demonstrates, government regulation and control always follow funding. "Choice" programs risk sucking families back into the system they fled.
It is time to revisit what worked in the past. Parents, not government, should be responsible for the education of their children, just like they are responsible for feeding and clothing them. If they need help, churches, non-profit organizations, extended families, and communities can fill the void.
It will take time—perhaps generations. But this should be the long-term goal. It will bring down costs, increase quality, and end increasingly bitter feuds taking place America as parents choose education options that work for their families.
Establishment figures are sounding the alarm about this threat to their fiefdom. American Federation of Teachers boss Randi Weingarten accused Republican leaders like Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis of seeking "complete destabilization of public education so parents will choose private schools."
The system was in crisis long before DeSantis. Outside-the-box thinking is needed now more than ever. Instead of tinkering around the edges, it is time for more systemic changes to fix this obviously systemic problem—a crisis threatening to tear America apart.
The future of the nation and its children is at stake. This problem must be addressed with the care and thoughtfulness it deserves. Ultimately, solutions will not come from politicians. Parents who love their children must step up and lead the way.
Alex Newman is an award-winning international journalist who taught high school for over a decade. His latest book, Indoctrinating Our Children to Death, has been endorsed by top leaders in education, media, ministry, military, and more. He also serves as volunteer executive director of Public School Exit.