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Angry Parents Parents are angry, as you can see in this video clip — and with good cause. Schools are failing their children in increasingly unprecedented ways -- academically, socially, morally, and physically. It's good to see parents getting up in arms about it. Let's hope they stay that way. Unfortunately, what these parents want will make very little difference for their children. The cause of their children's school problems is the entity that runs the schools -- government. The parents have been led to believe that they can transform that entity into something else, so that their children's schools will also be transformed. But a transformation will take subtracting the cause of the problem from the equation. The good news is that with so many angry parents, so much passion and love for their children, they are in a good position to start creating alternatives, if they so choose. Milton Friedman was a proponent of vouchers and his foundation continues in his footsteps. This is what they refer to as school choice. It is, they say, the “only real form of parental empowerment.” They elaborate in the closing paragraph of the article: "The only real hope for real change is real choice. School vouchers have consistently improved public school performance. That's because they change the underlying power structure and put parents in charge." School vouchers do not change the underlying power structure, nor do they put parents in charge. The government remains the underlying power structure, parents remain second-in-command (or lower), and children remain vulnerable. If parents were in charge they would be able to choose teachers, curriculum, activities, everything. They would get to define education. Instead, they get to choose among a limited number of schools that vary by mostly small degrees. They don’t get to define anything; they only get to choose among government-defined and approved options. When the government must approve your choice, you don’t have much choice at all. Vouchers constitute a false and heartbreaking hope. All the energy going into promoting them could be going into creating real options, free of state control and truly under parental control. It’s unfortunate, because The Friedman Foundation is an organization that has the influence to help parents choose independence and truly empower themselves and their children. School Choice Articles Links to 30 thought-provoking articles about vouchers and school choice. This is one of the most important issues we face regarding education today. By chasing the false hope of vouchers and “school choice,” we may very well destroy what liberty we have left. After reading through some of the articles, be sure to read “Say Yes to Vouchers.” There is a voucher plan that could work.
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