Data Bases • Custom Term Papers • Free Term Papers • Free Research Papers • Free Essays • Free Book Reports • Plagiarism? Links • Top 100 Term Paper Sites • Top 25 Essay Sites • Top 50 Essay Sites • Search 97,000 Papers @ DirectEssays.com • Search 101,000 Papers @ ExampleEssays.com • Search 90,000 Papers @ MegaEssays.com Free Essays • Term Paper Sites • Chuck III's Free Essays • Free College Essays • TermPaperSites.com • My Term Papers • Get Free Essays • Essay World • Planet Papers	Search Lots of Essays Back to Subjects - Technology Releasing governments grip on education Releasing governments grip on education Release Government’s Grip on Education Will the debates over education reform ever end? Can any system of education ever be formed to satisfy the conflicting desires of the people? The education of America’s youth is an important subject to most voters. Education holds a few spots in every election and has always been a crucial part of every candidate’s platform. The people of America have many sides to each of the numerous issues that surround education. Some of these issues include the content of the curriculum, discipline policies, safety of the children, over-crowded classrooms, zoning regulations, quality of teachers, and the inclusion or exclusion of religious teachings. Parents are lost in the sea of different reform ideas to vote for when they fill out their ballots. Simply, parents want their children to receive a superb education. Searching for a school that can provide such an education can prove to be a difficult task. The largest supplier of education is the government. While almost half of America consider the public schools to be “only fair” or worse, the overwhelming majority of parents continue to send their children to publics schools (Metropolitan). Even if parents were to find a school that meets their approval, often zoning regulations deny children from another location to be enrolled. The alternatives to public schools are home schooling and private schools. Teaching their own children is beyond many parents’ capabilities. Having enough time and energy is an issue since most households have two working parents. Further, most parents would not feel adequate enough for the task and would rather professional educators teach their children. On the other hand, sending their children to private schools still proves to be too expensive. The market for private schooling meets the demand of the wealthy, who can afford the costs, and the religious parents, which make sacrifices to control the theological and moral education of their children. These choices are not good enough. The supply of education is not meeting the demand of concerned parents. A healthy supply of education could be achieved if government relinquished its control. The separation of the government from education would allow a true market to thrive. Whether controlled by profit-earning businesses or non-profit organizations, all schools would be private. Unlike the current situation, every school would be subjected to the competition of a free market. One problem with public schooling is that change comes slowly. Proposals must be taken to a vote, funding must be approved, and then reforms are implemented. Often, reforms are approved only to be deemed mistakes that need correcting through the same process. This is not the way business handles an issue when there is competition to be the best supplier. In a free market, suppliers must make quick decisions to keep the consumer’s endorsement. Another benefit of a free market in education would be the choices parents would enjoy. No longer would zoning restrictions deny children to a school based on where they live. Teachers would lose their tenure and be subjected to the same competition that everyone else is in the sometimes cut-throat job market. Why should teachers be protected from the consequences of sub-standard performances? Parents could avoid questionable curriculum, over-crowded classrooms, unsafe campuses, and disagreements with theological teachings by exercising their freedom to decide which school their children attend (Fritz). Parents currently have so few choices because education suffers from a situation that most of the government’s regulations of the private sector aim to avoid: the monopoly of one supplier. The government should withdraw from education and allow parents to enjoy the healthy supply of a free market. Further, the average cost of a private school education currently provided by the limited supply of private schools does not exceed the average spent by government on a single American child. In the 1993-94 school year, the American taxpayers gave the government 6,500 dollars per student to provide education. In that same year, the average tuition paid by private school students was 3,100 dollars. Even more shocking, private school tuitions ranged from a low of 1,600 to 9,500 dollars (NCES). With the government charging the people more than double the average tuition of private schools while nearly half of those people consider public schooling to be “only fair” or worse, government has shown their lack of ability to effectively provide education. Understandably, many would still remain skeptical of such a radical and conservative proposal. One concern they may have would be the ability of low-income families to pay for any education. The function of a free market involves private enterprisers competing to supply the services that the market demands. The situation of a low-income family may fall below even a free market’s ability to meet the demand. However, a progressive tax credit incentive program could be created out of the excess funds formerly used to pay for the public schools (“Libertarian”). The funds freed by the retreat of government from education would not be limited to the state and local levels. President Bush asked Congress to provide the Department of Education with a budget of 56.5 billion dollars for the next fiscal year (Langan and Murphey). Government’s answer to the problems with their public schools is more of the taxpayer’s money. The debate over education reform will continue forever as long as the government is allowed to keep such an unfair monopoly. With the existence of many different desires and demands from parents and the lack of government’s ability to provide a universal and cost-effective education system, the people should demand the government’s withdrawal from education. Bibliography: Word Count: 927
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