Many of us have advocated for public education for decades. I sent my children to public schools, and I still hope we can turn this around without wholesale voucher systems. Yet teachers and boards are killing the institution of public education by treating children and parents more like captives than consumers. They are force-feeding social and political priorities, including passes for engaging in approved protests.
As public schools continue to produce abysmal scores, particularly for minority students, board and union officials have called for lowering or suspending proficiency standards or declared meritocracy to be a form of “white supremacy.” Gifted and talented programs are being eliminated in the name of “equity.”
Once parents have a choice, these teachers lose a virtual monopoly over many families, and these districts could lose billions in states like Florida.
[The public education system may be the purest form of elitist autocracy in American politics. They proudly claim to have severed the connection between the governing and the governed, proclaiming that they have a duty and a right to refuse to answer to parents whose children get forced into their institutions. They have made this change to follow-the-student funding not just necessary for the children but also for the principle of responsive self-government. The teacher unions will have no one to blame but themselves when parents strip them of their power by voting with their feet. — Ed]
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