Start with School Boards

This article is Part 2 of Rule 6, Break Up the Blue Zones. It’s short, but rather relevant to one of the burning issues of the moment: do teachers have the right to brainwash your kids into believing the homosexual agenda?

For the second half of my public school education I lived in a small rural county which had just one high school -- a high school which graduated significantly less than 200 students/year. In other words, the local school board had exactly one high school to supervise, and a rather small one at that. Given that the county had significantly less than 10,000 residents in it, school board members were accountable. Any naughtiness in order to appease wacky academic trends could be countered by disgruntled parents in short order. When I was in junior high, they had a Bible reading and a prayer over the intercom each morning -- despite the fact that such activities had been declared illegal by the Supreme Court for over a decade. My high school had strict dress codes; the cheerleader outfits were depressingly conservative. From what I hear from family, that school system has so far resisted the rainbow flags and sodomy lessons taught at our "better" public schools. I believe they are still publicly praying as well.

That county, by the way, is three times Blacker than America as a whole. Those who pin their hopes on making the Republican Party the White Party are making a strategic and moral blunder. Better to focus on community, Christianity, and common sense.

A county or city of a hundred thousand people or more is not really a community unless it is incredibly homogeneous. Other forms of Identity can trump Hometown Spirit. So here is my first proposal: have a separate school board for every high school. Each school board would also supervise the primary and intermediate schools which feed their respective high schools. This isn't the libertarian ideal of School Choice, but it does provide accountability through real democracy. And those disgruntled by the local demographic can vote with their feet if ballot action fails to please. Let those who want to force their kids to learn Latin, logic, and linear algebra live together, and let those who worry about their childrens' Self Esteem live in neighboring school districts.

For areas of extreme population density, my proposal might break down. I'm a Country Gentleman at heart and have never lived deep in a core city, so those of you with more experience in such dystopian environs will need to make some independent decisions. I will, however, float another proposal for you to ponder as well: for high density areas perhaps the way to go is a charter or voucher system, but have the Parks and Recreation Department handle the playgrounds, and maybe even the extramural sports. Way back when I took Spanish in high school, I was taught that sports were a neighborhood thing, not a high school thing. I have not researched the arrangement since, but urbanites in the audience might want to.

I have also noticed that many Western European countries -- what many Republican Americans think of as socialist welfare states -- have more school choice options than the United States. According to Wikipedia, the Netherlands has had vouchers since 1917 and 70% of pupils attend privately run schools there. Even Sweden has a school voucher program, though the schools that take the vouchers have to follow the national curriculum.

True, some of these European welfare states still have established churches or had them quite recently, so mixing state money with parochial schools is less of a big deal than in the United States. Also, safe, bicycle friendly cities are ideal for school choice -- no need for school buses. So there are some real reasons why going the voucher route is a tougher sell in the US. On the other hand, old school liberals love to hold up Europe as an example...

Next: Villages Within a City