Celebrate school choice with a snowcone in the park tomorrow
The Oklahoma Council for Public Affairs (OCPA) and Americans for Prosperity Foundation are celebrating the 102nd birthday of Nobel Laureate and educational-choice champion Milton Friedman with snowcones at Tulsa's Mohawk Park Pavilion 2, tomorrow, Thursday, July 31, 2014, from 4 pm to 6 pm. It's a come-and-go event for the whole family, and door prizes will be awarded.
Friedman, with his wife Rose, wrote the best-selling book Free to Choose and hosted a PBS TV series of the same name, showing the essential connection between personal liberty and prosperity. Throughout his career, Friedman argued that meaningful parental choice in education would produce better schools better suited to students. Some quotes on the topic (links to original sources and context at the link):
"It is only the tyranny of the status quo that leads us to take it for granted that in schooling, government monopoly is the best way for the government to achieve its objective."-- "The School Choice Advocate," January 2004"Our goal is to have a system in which every family in the U.S. will be able to choose for itself the school to which its children go. We are far from that ultimate result. If we had that -- a system of free choice -- we would also have a system of competition, innovation, which would change the character of education."
-- CNBC Interview Transcript, March 2003"Improved education is offering a hope of narrowing the gap between the less and more skilled workers, of fending off the prior prospect of a society divided between the "haves" and "have nots," of a class society in which an educated elite provided welfare for a permanent class of unemployables."
-- "The School Choice Advocate," July 1998
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I'd love to see a comparison of the various legislative initiatives to bring about change.
The least reforming bill would be something like what Minnesota has had for over a decade. It involves only public school choice. The teachers' unions will fight any change, but this is the least threatening to them. They still retain a monopoly over publicly-funded common education.
The better option is "The 'G.I.' Bill For Kids". Bush 41 advocated it. It would work just like the G.I. Bill does. The money follows the kids, whether it results in tuition payments to public or private institutions. Faith based institutions would have equal footing in competing for students and the funding which follows each student.
There will be surprises in any option. Suburban school districts and the current families enrolled there will fight to keep the big city kids out. Jenks, Union, B.A., and other districts do not want Tulsa Public School kids. Real Estate Agents may even get involved in the fight.
Communities will become less supportive of the local high school, because it no longer represents the community's families like it once did.
Some schools will become known as sports schools, others will become academic schools, and others will find and fill other niches. Kids who lack transportation support will find themselves trapped into the local school which may not offer the young person as much support for his career dreams.
My hometown Minnesota school used to compete in athletics, but now most of the top athletes travel an extra 10 minutes to attend a successful sports high school. Now my alma mater gets far less community support for sports. they even cut several varsity sports programs.
Change always has some pain. I strongly support school choice, but it will involve some losses.