Privatize Education

Oscar B. Johannsen

[Reprinted from Fragments, Summer, 1995]

EDUCATION has become an increasingly vexing problem because young adults leave their public schools poorly prepared for college or for independent living.

Philosophers and scholars may debate whether education is for society's or the government's benefit, but I believe education is to help individuals develop and perfect those skills so that they may lead happy and fulfilling lives.

To be happy, people should do that for which they are best fitted. The gifted artists who because of economic necessity work as waiters, may become frustrated and unhappy, for they are not making use of their superior talents.

Education comprises a communication of ideas from teachers who present concepts to pupils and is for people who live in society. By getting a sound education in the companionship of others, pupils gain an appreciation of their dependence upon their equals, while learning how to maintain their independence. As the teachers must serve the pupils' interests wholeheartedly, it must be on the same basis as that of personal service. Hire the best teachers possible. To gain pupils, teachers will associate with one another to establish schools of every conceivable size and kind -- for the blind, the slow, the disabled, the intellectual, and the realist; and profitability will decide which schools succeed.

If someone a hundred years ago persuaded the people that the feeding and clothing of children is a duty of government, and if somebody today argued that it is the parents' responsibility, objections would be raised. Parents could not possibly bear the costs atone: children of the rich would be fed and clothed better than the children in the lower classes. This would not be democratic; it would be striking at the very foundations of society.

Unfortunately, about 1830, some educators convinced the people that education is a government responsibility. Today, for all practical purposes, primary and secondary schools depend on local government, the cost of which is borne by taxes. Whenever the proposition arises that parents should pay for the education, and the physical care of their children, objections are raised that most people could not possibly afford to do it. Largely, however, they are paying for it now because the major portion of the sum of all taxes comes from the majority of the people, and not from the few with large incomes.

If all schools were private, the cost of education would be small, or much less than it currently is, because competition forces schools to be efficient.

There will, of course, always be orphans and poor children. They will be aided by charitable organizations and private individuals. With their assistance, no child need be denied the benefits of private schools.

Laws do not force men and women to be responsible for their offsprings' education. It is love, an emotion so powerful that reason itself is helpless before it. Those who neglect their children evade their responsibilities, despite any laws.

In such cases, the force of public opinion and the demands of the children themselves will have their mitigating effects, just as they do in the cases of physical neglect and abuse.

Since primary and secondary education is conducted principally by public schools, most people do not realize that they are really "socialized" schools since they are run by governmental units, such as towns or cities, under the control of state boards of education. But people are aware of the constant deterioration in the quality of education being received and the lack of results, so (hey are demanding a review of our educational practices.

To give the American child the best and the finest education of which he or she is capable, take it out of the hands of the politicians and the bureaucrats and return it to the people, which means privatizing the schools, as private schools are so superior to the public that there simply is no comparison.

It is not only the public schools that should be privatized. The privately operated colleges in America are not truly private enterprises. They partake of a hybrid character -- partly private, partly eleemosynary.

Primarily because of the absurdly inequitable competition of the state and land grant colleges, and the understandable desire to make education available to all who wish to pursue it, private colleges have, as a rule, kept their tuition fees at a level below expenses.

Colleges can emulate the success and independence of industry by being put on a sound business basis. Tuition fees are high now due to inflation and governmental controls, but eliminate the interference of government, and fees will be in line with those of other services -- sufficient to cover expenses plus a profit.

The issue is simple. Education -- primary, secondary and college -- must be based on really private enterprise, or it will be reduced in time to the status of a completely nationalized enterprise. Poor salaries, poor teachers, poor equipment will act like a growing cancer that will erupt in a demand for increased federal aid. Let there be no mistake about it. When the federal government actively enters the doors of all our schools, colleges, and universities, then education will depart, and another propaganda organization will arise to glorify the omniscience and omnipotence of the State.