Charter Schools Are A Shell Game: Get Government Completely Out of Education

By Chris Rossini

Whenever socialism fails (i.e., all the time) the desire for change starts to rumble in the minds of the duped citizenry. The direction that will be taken depends largely on the ideas and beliefs that those citizens hold at the time. More often then not, the outcome has been to just put a new socialist in charge. He'll "fix" what the previous comrade broke.

Of course, there is no "fix" for socialism. As Ludwig Von Mises pointed out long ago, it is doomed to failure no matter what. Without market exchanges, and without market prices, the comrades and czars are helpless.

One of last bastions of full-blown socialist policies around the world is in the area of education. Control of education is the crown jewel of government control. After all, if the world moves in the direction of the most dominant ideas, it is of the utmost importance to government to force you to adopt its ideas. Government has you for the first 18 years of your life (at least). Then the government's media picks up where the schools leave off, and take over from there.

No matter how much failure the government's school "system" produces, and no matter how many resources are flushed down the drain, it will fight tooth and nail (to the very end) to maintain control of education.

Despite the fact that this so-called education has become so horrendous (as parents who are currently dealing with "Common Core" can attest to), the cries are always for "fixes". Of course, demands for more money to toss into the black hole are a given. But, again, as Von Mises proved, socialism cannot be fixed.

One of the more recent fixes are called "Charter Schools".

The Daily Beast tells us that charter schools are the new salvation in Britain:

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The British PM is fixing his country’s schools...Prime Minister David Cameron called for an end to the country’s traditional public school system, endorsing instead a nationwide conversion to academies, which are essentially the British equivalent of charter schools—publicly funded, but with greater freedom over what they teach and how they are run.

Charter Schools are a shell game. They give the illusion that change is happening because the schools are privately run. However, they are not really privately run, since the funding comes from the government.

When government teams-up with private entities it is called Fascism. Benito Mussolini described the arrangement perfectly: “Fascism should more appropriately be called Corporatism because it is a merger of state and corporate power”.

Government's have no problem with Fascism. It leaves them in control.

That is why governments are fine with charter schools. With government's money come government's mandates. The so-called "privately" run schools have to obey those mandates in order to keep the funds coming.

The real answer and solution to government's socialized schools is not a move to fascism. The answer is to move to freedom. A complete free market in education is the only solution, with consumers freely choosing what their children will be taught. There must be no government involvement whatsoever. No force.

Parents, as the consumers, would provide the funding. As a result it would be the parents that would be in control of what is being taught. If they do not approve, they remove their funding and look to a competitor that will better satisfy their child's needs. As with everything else, where free markets exist, competitors will tailor their products and services to the demands of consumers. Not to do so would mean immediate bankruptcy.

Naturally, the government will never voluntarily remove itself from education. It is much too important to their hold on power. They will continue to shuffle the deck chairs for as long as possible. 

Fortunately, like the U.S. Postal Service, the government's "schools" will eventually become obsolete. The advance of technology, the Internet, and communications, will ultimately bury them. In practice, they are already obsolete. It just takes time for new ideas, methods and habits to spread far and wide.

The Ron Paul Curriculum is playing an important part in this ongoing transition. Government education's final breath cannot come soon enough.
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