In a response to a post about whether Education Freedom Accounts (EFAs) should be universal, a reader responded by saying:
I still believe it is a societal responsibility to ensure children are schooled.
The problem with discussing ‘societal responsibilities’ is that once you get beyond the defense of self and property, there’s usually a lot of disagreement about the nature and extent of those responsibilities.
Some people, for example, believe that it is a ‘societal responsibility’ to provide gender-affirming care to children; to suppress the expression of certain ideas; to ensure that only the police and the military have guns; and so on. I suspect that many readers at GraniteGrok would disagree.
I think there is a societal responsibility to be armed- by which I mean, it is the responsibility of an individual who is part of society to be armed. The 2nd Amendment to the federal constitution says that this is necessary to the security of a free state. But this is very different from a ‘societal responsibility to ensure people are armed’, if that is understood to mean that the government should tax people in order to pursue this goal.
Change ‘armed’ to ‘educated, ‘ and it’s exactly the same.
I think there is a societal responsibility to be educated — by which I mean, it is the responsibility of an individual who is part of society to be educated. Article 83 of our state constitution says that this is essential to the preservation of a free government. But this is very different from a ‘societal responsibility to ensure children are educated’, if that is understood to mean that that the government should tax people in order to pursue this goal.
Being armed and being educated are the two principal tools for resisting a tyrannical government. So it makes no sense to let government be involved in either of those, let alone to be in charge of one of them.
But society is not government. Government operates by coercion, while society operates by cooperation.
Why not let those members of society who think that schooling should be funded go ahead and fund it, using their own money? If this is idea enjoys widespread support, then there will be plenty of money available.
But if it doesn’t enjoy such support, then as Jefferson said, to compel people to furnish funds for the propagation of ideas they disbelieve and abhor is sinful and tyrannical:
https://ian4nhrep.wordpress.com/2016/09/19/an-inconvenient-question/
All of which is to say, if there is a societal responsibility to ensure children are schooled, then it should be up to society, and not government, to make that happen. And we confuse those at our great peril.
Ruth Ward et Rick Ladd removenda sunt
