Liberals (typically Democrats) and Conservatives (typically Republicans) have very different viewpoints about education. Liberals see the public school educational establishment (the unions, the government bureaucracies, the University Education Departments, etc.) as the way to educate children (except occasionally for their own children).
Conservatives believe results are the important thing, “Is the child getting a good education?” Government ads claim that every day 7000 children drop out of school and millions more graduate lacking basic knowledge. The educational establishment isn’t meeting society’s need to prepare children for adulthood.
The Liberal answer to public education problems is to increase money for the educational establishment. But, we’ve been doing this for 40 years with failing results, the liberal solution meets Einstein’s definition of insanity.
Conservatives want to put the student’s parents in control of their child’s education by letting parents, not the school system, control where their child’s education money is spent. Conservatives believe that parents are most concerned about their child’s education, and that they are fully capable of choosing the right school for their child.
Liberals argue that parental school choice takes funding from the public school system. But, rich Liberals don’t hesitate to take their own children out of public schools no matter what the consequences to school system funding. Rich liberals apparently are happy if the children of poorer parents are condemned to stay in failing schools.
Conservatives believe that school choice will create competition among schools, forcing schools to improve. Competing schools can offer different educational experiences, better meeting the needs of individual students. Poor schools will improve or close. But, public schools need not lose a dime of funding, they just must provide a good education.
To protect the public school system, the New Hampshire scholarship program, like many systems allowing parental school choice, only lets a portion of what a school system spends on each student to follow the student. And, the NH scholarship program, that Democrats want to end, limits the amount of money that a school district can lose because of scholarships.
The choice in November is clear. If you care more about the educational process than the results, then support Democrats. If you care that our public education system fails to meet the needs of millions of students, if you think parents can choose better schools for their children, or if you agree that competition will improve educational results, then you should vote for people who care about the results for each child, vote Republican.
