What If Public Schools Were Abolished?
by
Llewellyn H. Rockwell, Jr.
[This article was originally published
here.
See also the
Alliance for the Separation of School and State.]
In
American culture, public schools are praised in public
and criticized in private, which is roughly the opposite
of how we tend to treat large-scale enterprises like
Wal-Mart. In public, everyone says that Wal-Mart is
awful, filled with shoddy foreign products and
exploiting workers. But in private, we buy the
well-priced, quality goods, and long lines of people
hope to be hired.
Why is this? It has something to do with the fact that
public schools are part of our civic religion, the
primary evidence that people cite to show that local
government serves us. And there is a psychological
element. Most of us turn our kids over to them, so
surely they must have our best interest at heart!
 But
do they? Murray N. Rothbard's
Education: Free and Compulsory explains that
the true origin and purpose of public education is not
so much education as we think of it, but indoctrination
in the civic religion. This explains why the civic elite
is so suspicious of homeschooling and private schooling:
it's not fear of low test scores that is driving this,
but the worry that these kids aren't learning the values
that the state considers important.
But to blast public schools is not the purpose of this
article. There are decent public schools and terrible
ones, so there is no use generalizing. Nor is there a
need to trot out data on test scores. Let me just deal
with economics. All studies have shown that average cost
per pupil for public schools is twice that of private
schools (here is a
sample study).
This runs contrary to intuition, since people think of
public schools as free and private schools as expensive.
But once you consider the source of funding (tax dollars
vs. market tuition or donation), the private alternative
is much cheaper. In fact, the public schools cost as
much as the most expensive and elite private schools in
the country. The difference is that the cost of public
schooling is spread out over the entire population,
whereas the private school cost is borne only by the
families with students who attend them.
In short, if we could abolish public schools and
compulsory schooling laws, and replace it all with
market-provided education, we would have better schools
at half the price, and be freer too. We would also be a
more just society, with only the customers of education
bearing the costs.
What's not to like? Well, there is the problem of the
transition. There are obvious and grave political
difficulties. We might say that public education enjoys
a political advantage here due to
network effects. A significant number of
"subscriptions," etc. have been piled up in the status
quo, and it is very difficult to change those.
But let's pretend. Let's say that a single town decided
that the costs of public schooling are too vast relative
to private schooling, and the city council decided to
abolish public schools outright. The first thing to
notice is that this would be illegal, since every state
requires localities to provide education on a public
basis. I don't know what would happen to the city
council. Would they be jailed? Who knows? Certainly they
would be sued.
But let's say we somehow get past that problem, thanks
to, say, a special amendment in the state constitution,
that exempts certain localities if the city council
approves. Then there is the problem of federal
legislation and regulation. I am purely speculating
since I don't know the relevant laws, but we can guess
that the Department of Education would take notice, and
a national hysteria of some sort would follow. But let's
say we miraculously get past that problem too, and the
federal government lets this locality go its own way.
There will be two stages to the transition. In the first
stage, many seemingly bad things will happen. How are
the physical buildings handled in our example? They are
sold to the highest bidder, whether that be to new
school owners, businesses, or housing developers. And
the teachers and administrators? All let go. You can
imagine the outcry.
With property taxes abolished, people with kids in
public schools might move away. There will be no premium
for houses in school districts that are considered good.
There will be anger about this. For the parents that
remain, there is a major problem of what to do with the
kids during the day.
With property taxes gone, there is extra money to pay
for schools, but their assets have just fallen in market
value (even without the Fed), which is a serious problem
when it comes to shelling out for school tuition. There
will, of course, be widespread hysteria about the poor
too, who will find themselves without any schooling
choices other than homeschool.
Now, all that sounds pretty catastrophic, doesn't it?
Indeed. But it is only phase one. If we can somehow make
it to phase two, something completely different will
emerge. The existing private schools will be filled to
capacity and there will be a crying need for new ones.
Entrepreneurs will quickly flood into the area to
provide schools on a competitive basis. Churches and
other civic institutions will gather the money to
provide education.
At first, the new schools will be modeled on the public
school idea. Kids will be there from 8 to 4 or 5, and
all classes will be covered. But in short order, new
alternatives will appear. There will be schools for
half-day classes. There will be large, medium, and small
schools. Some will have 40 kids per class, and others 4
or 1. Private tutoring will boom. Sectarian schools of
all kinds will appear. Micro-schools will open to serve
niche interests: science, classics, music, theater,
computers, agriculture, etc. There will be single sex
schools. Whether sports would be part of school or
something completely independent is for the market to
decide.
And no longer will the "elementary, middle school, high
school" model be the only one. Classes will not
necessarily be grouped by age alone. Some will be based
on ability and level of advancement too. Tuition would
range from free to super expensive. The key thing is
that the customer would be in charge.
Transportation services would spring up to replace the
old school-bus system. People would be able to make
money by buying vans and providing transportation. In
all areas related to education, profit opportunities
would abound.
In short, the market for education would operate the
same as any other market. Groceries, for example. Where
there is a demand, and obviously people demand education
for their kids, there is supply. There are large grocery
stores, small ones, discount ones, premium ones, and
stores for groceries on the run. It is the same for
other goods, and it would be the same for education.
Again, the customer would rule. In the end, what would
emerge is not entirely predictable – the market never is
– but whatever happened would be in accord with the
wishes of the public.
After this phase two, this town would emerge as one of
the most desirable in the country. Educational
alternatives would be unlimited. It would be the source
of enormous progress, and a model for the nation. It
could cause the entire country to rethink education. And
then those who moved away would move back to enjoy the
best schools in the country at half the price of the
public schools, and those without children in the house
wouldn't have to pay a dime for education. Talk about
attractive!
So which town will be the first to try it and show us
all the way?
April 5, 2008
Llewellyn H. Rockwell, Jr. [send
him mail] is founder and president of the
Ludwig von Mises Institute in Auburn, Alabama,
editor of
LewRockwell.com, and author of
Speaking of Liberty.
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