School Daze

If it ain't broke, don't fix it.
Common sense is not common.
An educated public helps guarantee a safe and free society.

   The nominee to take charge of the U.S. Department of Education favors a voucher system so parents can send their kids to whatever school they prefer, rather than rely on free neighborhood public schools.
   If fully developed nationwide, this would effectively destroy an educational system that has worked well in America since the 17th Century, when the Pilgrims insisted that all children learn the Three R's -- reading, writing and arithmetic -- regardless of their ability to pay.
   One argument for a school voucher system is that it gives all families a choice.
   An argument against it is that it diminishes neighborhood schools, and gives a subsidy to families that don't need financial help.
   Conservative dogma says private enterprise always does a better job than government, whatever the task or project. Common sense says otherwise.
   There are some areas where privatization leads to destruction of a system that works, to be replaced by an enterprise where profit is the prime motive. Education is a leading example. Others include police and fire protection, road and bridge construction and maintenance, support for the jobless that includes helping them find work, and other social welfare programs such as health care and old age pensions.
   But the incoming federal administration looks to dismantle or privatize all social welfare programs that go back some 80 years. And privatizing the entire education system would take down a system that has been in place for nearly 400 years.
   In all, signs point to a government that uses the art of dealing from the bottom of the deck to issue trump cards that override programs in place for decades and turns them over to private enterprise whose primary motive is profit, not sharing.
   Nothing prevents the wealthy from sending their children to private schools. But for those who cannot, publicly supported elementary and secondary education is essential, and guarantees a citizenry with the skills needed to support and participate in a free society.
   An educated public is government's most important product.