School Choice - Parents should be free to choose the best education for their children

Government provides less education at greater cost.

School choice is the radical idea that parents have the right to decide where their children attend school. But what if that school is a private school? And what if the parents cannot afford even modest tuition? What about the best interests of the child? Education in America and its politics are failing our children.

LOS ANGELES, CA (California Network) -- Education is a universal right for all people. Every child should be taught how to read, write, do arithmetic, and communicate. These skills are basic and essential. They are required for survival and to thrive in the modern world. As a result, we justly mandate education at least until the age of 16 years. However, experience shows that simply sending kids to government run schools is not enough.

Our schools are failing our children.

Schools are overcrowded. Classrooms are underfunded while administrations are bloated. Ham-fisted federal control and bureaucracy have students studying to take tests and unprepared for the real world.

Twenty five percent of all kids drop out of high school and fail to graduate on time. That's about 1.2 million kids per year, or a rate of 7,000 kids per day. A high school dropout will earn one million dollars less than a college graduate, which is a tremendous disparity in the value of productivity.

There are 2,000 schools across the U.S. where the dropout rate exceeds 40 percent. Those 2,000 schools educate 1 in 6 American teens.

Dropouts commit 75 percent of crimes each year.

Kids graduate without basic skills. They cannot count back change, look up books in the library, change a tire, or oil, or perform basic repairs on their cars or homes. They cannot cook from scratch. They cannot read food labels, or write a proper essay. Even students with powerful skills, such as coding and computer programming are deficient in other critical areas. Few can budget or understand the important discipline of saving money.

Click here for more information on school choice from the Institute for Justice.

As a result, our youth see socialism as a possible answer to many developing problems. A staggering 75 percent of millennials see socialism as a positive thing. Many are ignorant of the political process and of what the various parties and ideologies represent. They vote, without comprehending what they are voting for.

They consume without appreciation or understanding. And this is true for graduates as well as dropouts.

Powerful teachers unions, liberal policy wonks, and an unhealthy obsession with test scores have contributed to the ruin of our public education system. And most Americans have no choice but to send their kids to the same failing schools, year after year, and pray for a different result.

The definition of insanity is doing the same thing over and over, expecting a different result. Our schools are not going to improve until the power of choice is restored.

Allowing parents to choose which school their children attend would introduce free market economic pressures to our educational system. Ideally, each student would receive a voucher and the money for their education would follow them. Schools would have to be attractive to students and make parent satisfaction high. Schools that fail, close. Teachers that fail do not keep their jobs. This is how almost every other industry works. Why not schools?

At the same time failing schools close, new schools open. Private institutions would also compete for students, driving down the cost of tuition and pushing up the quality of education.

Presently, this plan is impossible because of a series of Amendments to state constitutions. Known as the Blaine Amendments, they were proposed by Rep. James G. Blaine in 1875 to prevent the use of tax money to pay for Catholic schools. The federal amendment failed, but 38 states passed similar amendments to their constitutions.

Interested in making a difference? Click here to see this helpful guide to planning school choice programs.

Today, the Blaine amendments make it impossible for many low-income parents to send their kids to religious schools, no matter what denomination. This is tragic because private education is eclipsing public education in every metric. Private schools boast a nearly 100 percent graduation rate, and their graduates are better prepared than their public counterparts.

Overturning these anti-Catholic amendments is key to creating competition between the private and public systems, and raising the standard for all. After all, education is a right of every child, regardless of their religion.

It's time to put kids and parents in charge of our schools, not ideology and politics. Public schools must become as responsive to parents as private schools are. And they must produce better results.

The easiest way to accomplish this is to let parents be parents, and choose their child's school.