St Petersburg, Fl--Some
Florida Libertarians and concerned parents involved in education
characterized a Florida Supreme Court ruling against vouchers as
"institutionalizing ignorance" and "bizarre, unrealistic, and a
new form of Jim Crow to keep the poor out of private schools."
So said attendees and e-participants for a
workshop for parents concerned about the decision hosted by
Libertarians. Michael Gilson-De Lemos, who serves on a local
schooling board in Pinellas county and is a frequent speaker to
schools and educators on Libertarian alternatives, hosted the
forum.
The Florida court ruled against the Florida
Governor Jeb Bush, who led a coalition that brought about what
observers felt was one of the most successful voucher plans in
the US.
The vouchers, while not
advocated per se by the Libertarians, were informally supported
by them as a form of tax relief and return of control and choice
to the parents. Libertarians had worked in many Florida
communities to explain the voucher program, and make parents
aware of other alternatives such as charter, magnet, and
low-cost or free private schooling.
Libertarians, said Mr. Gilson, "Show people how
all government schools should be made 'truly free and public' by
being made non-compulsory, making boards more local and run by
parents and students, and supported voluntarily through
community trusts. They also point to the value of private
schooling, and are generally acknowledged as having led the
revival of home-schooling in the US."
GOVERNMENT SCHOOLS IMITATE HOME-SCHOOLING
The ruling seemed "In a growing number of
parent's eyes who have looked into the different alternatives as
really rooted in myths from the 1930's and to ignore the
economic knowledge and experience with the options available
available now to the average Florida parent," said Mr. Gilson in
an interview. "People felt that the court ruling said bizarre,
unrealistic things, such as suggesting that somehow the private
schools were competing unfairly because the parents got some of
their tax money back. In fact, one can argue that it's
government monopoly schools that compete unfairly, since they
tax their competition and their competition's potential
customers to support themselves in the first place. It
completely reverses the Constitution. Suddenly it's not public
education or even legitimate education unless it's government
education."
In addition, "Government school costs reflect
this monopoly position. Many private schools cost less than half
what goes to the government schools, and home-schooling costs as
little as 1% of their cost," he said.
"In fact, Florida government schools have begun a
form of internet home-schooling that, unsurprisingly, is riddled
with red tape and costs far more. The parent knows more than the
Court. Given a chance, he or she votes with his feet.
Unfortunately, this will also hit inner city and poor parents
hardest, who were major users of the vouchers."
NEW MODELS, SAY LIBERTARIANS
In recent years, government schools have come
under unrelenting attack by Libertarians, who have documented
growing trends of student abuse, spiraling costs, and effective
voluntary alternatives. In so doing they've united an array of
conservatives, leftist critics, innovative educators, and
parents wanting measurable results for less money into a
nationwide cultural force. Libertarian ideas such as charter
schools, home-schooling, and student driven education have been
widely adopted, reversing a trend of government school monopoly.
Libertarians are at pains to point out that they support
non-denominational public schools open to all, but that these
should not be compulsory or tax based, and would benefit from
more direct role for parents and students. Florida is considered
especially friendly to educational experimentation by parents,
in large part, say observers, due to the activism of
Libertarians who have beat back attempts to limit parental
experiments such as school co-operatives.
Mr. Gilson, in a talk to over 100 Pinellas County
and St. Petersburg, Florida parents, educators and students who
met to discuss the ruling, also pointed to paradigm-busting
models such as Sudbury schools, which are low cost and actually
run by the students, who set their own class sizes, hire
teachers, and set their own curricula with direct parent
involvement. "Governor Bush thought a little freedom might be a
good thing, and after a painstaking consultative process was
attempting to introduce a little realism by having the schools
educate on education itself, by offering real choices and
understandable information working people can use. This not only
helped the private schools but improved the government ones by
helping parents drag them into the 21st century. The Supreme
Court has not voted against vouchers, but for
self-institutionalized ignorance, de-educating people on the
choices they could have."
Mr. Gilson says the ruling has, perversely, been a publicity
bonanza for Libertarians speaking on education alternatives to
parents, student groups, and schools. "Speaking invitations have
shot up. People want competition or choice. They want information
on alternatives. They don't believe education means keeping people
in the dark with their tax money. If the Supreme Court chooses to
censor information on parental choice, the public chooses to come
to us. Choice will out. "
RSS Legal
News Feed
