The Bumper Sticker Problem

I haven't posted the past couple of days because my mother died on Wednesday. Not a tragedy really, it was overdue, but I had to deal with various issues.

 Next item: Parents determine the education of their children.

The bullet list I'm working through can be thought of as bumper sticker slogans. Yes, they're short and simple but that doesn't mean anybody can understand them. On the contrary, they may seem superficially plausible or even convincing, but it turns out that they evade the facts, or complexity of a problem. They may contain an unstated assumption that turns out to be false, or make sense only in an unreal world. 

 

A basic problem with this one is that if you send your children to school, all the other children in that school also have parents, and they may not want exactly what you want. If it's a public school, it's also funded by the taxpayers of your town, state and country, most of whom do not have children in that particular school, or perhaps any school. Usually, most of the funding comes from local property taxes, so the school board, which has the most control, is elected by the voters of the city or town. It's very likely to listen to what parents have to say, but again, they aren't all going to agree. 

You could set up a voucher system, as many people advocate, in which parents could use tax dollars to pay tuition at a private school. That's not going to give parents complete control, obviously, because there might not be a private school nearby that meets their requirements, and even a private school has multiple parents and trustees and they're going to have their own ideas. Furthermore, as children get older, they gain more autonomy and what they want, as opposed to what their parents want, becomes important. And of course the problem that some of the taxpayers may not like some of what a voucher can buy remains.

More people nowadays are home schooling, which would seem to fit the bill, although the question of children's autonomy comes up here as well. Some home schooling parents will honor that, but others won't. But there's a deeper problem. 

Parental rights are not unlimited. You can't beat your children, rape them, pimp them out, make them work in your coal mine, starve them or imprison them. Furthermore, you can't deprive them of the knowledge and skills they need to live successfully as adults. In all states, children are required to go to school, usually until age 16 or 18, and schools and home schoolers are required to meet certain curricular standards. All of society has a stake in the education of all children because they will grow up to be our neighbors.

I am not going even to try here to provide the answers for what should be required of K through 12 education. I am only pointing out that the bumper sticker slogan doesn't do it either. In fact it's total nonsense. Children have rights, taxpayers have rights, citizens have rights, as well as parents. The world is complicated.