Should You be Permitted to Choose the BEST School for Your Child?

By Gary Gonsalves, M.D.

As parents you want your children to get the best possible education. As a community, you recognize that a strong education promotes less crime, better income, more stable families and even better health (click here for related article).  But do you really have a choice on the best school for your children?

If a public education is your only ‘choice’ then I regret to inform you that the Teachers Union holds a MONOPOLY over your child’s education and their leaders are adamant that you have no choice.   Your lack of input is integral to their union maintaining control of your schools for their benefit.  Afterall, when teachers strike, they are doing it for the children….right?  

Like it or not, your child’s education is of secondary importance to the teachers union.  The union, first and foremost, represents its members, not your children.   If you want proof, here is the mission statement of the California Teachers Association, straight from their website: 

“The California Teachers Association exists to protect and promote the
well-being of its members; to improve the conditions of teaching and
learning; to advance the cause of free, universal, and quality public
education; to ensure that the human dignity and civil rights of all
children and youth are protected; and to secure a more just, equitable,
and democratic society.”

I added the bold emphasis, but this mission statement puts teachers before children, and as a teachers association, it should!  But who then represents your children?  The answer is “the community”, but by ceding control of your schools to the teachers union, the community has only emboldened the union’s monopoly on public education.  As a result, aside from choosing your zip code, you have no choice in your child’s educational experience and geography alone will dictate what school they attend. 

For our inner city poor, this particularly devastating.  Who would have guessed that the democratic party, the party of public labor unions, was anti-choice?  But on school attendance they are clearly anti-choice, and “The education, or rather the uneducation, of black children from low
income families is undoubtedly the greatest disaster area in public
education and its most devastating failure. This is doubly tragic for it
has always been the official ethic of public schooling that it was the
poor and the oppressed who were its greatest beneficiaries.” (Click for link)

Certainly, there is a better option to the monopoly offered by the teachers union and the simple answer is CHOICE…..the liberty to choose the school that is best for your child. 

The path to this choice could easily be implemented via a series of K-12 Pell grants – grants that would be restricted for educational purposes only and available to any family with school-age children.  These grants would be funded via existing property tax dollars and therefore be revenue neutral.  No further tax increases would be necessary.  Such a program currently exists in Wahsington DC where K-12 Pell grants are empowering parents to choose the best school for their children, whether it be public or private (click for link).

With schools competing for your Pell grant dollars, the quality of both private and public education would dramatically increase.  In the same fashion that competition continually yields better and less expensive products, the same competition in the school system would result in a better educational experience for your children.  Those schools that fail to improve would rapidly be replaced by schools that excel in education. 

The critics will want to maintain the status quo as the union is fearful of loss of control.  While this is a normal human reaction to change, it is clear that  parents are interested in investigating how choice can improve educational outcomes.  As an example check out the following link to a survey regarding school choice in North Carolina (link). 

Whether it be Washington D.C., North Carolina, or your neighborhood, there is a clear answer to, “Should you be permitted to choose the best school for your child?”.  The resounding answer is YES.   All we have to do is investigate which politicians support YES and get them elected to public office.  The Teachers Union has been anti-choice for decades.  If you want choice, you will have to reclaim your schools in the name of your children. 

Do you want to end the union monopoly on public education?  Send us an email.  Our address is [email protected]