FREEDOM of education, being an essential of civil and religious liberty . . . must not be interfered with under any pretext whatever," the party's national platform declared. "We are opposed to state interference with parental rights and rights of conscience in the education of children as an infringement of the fundamental . . . doctrine that the largest individual liberty consistent with the rights of others insures the highest type of American citizenship and the best government.
That ringing endorsement of parental supremacy in education was adopted by the Democratic National Convention in Chicago in 1892, which just goes to show what was possible before the Democratic Party was taken hostage by the teachers unions.
Update: Fixed blockquote formatting problem.
14 comments:
You closed the quotation too soon. Your entire post was written by Jeff Jacoby.
BTW, it's too bad Jacoby didn't quote what came before that passage:
Popular education being the only safe basis of popular suffrage we recommend to the several States most liberal appropriations for the public schools Free public schools are the nursery of good government and they have always received the fostering care of the Democratic Party which favors every means of increasing intelligence Freedom of education.
Yes, it is a shame, especially since public education funding has increased over ninefold since the early 1900s. As a percentage of GDP, the US now spends more than almost every other industrialized country and that disguises the fact that our GDP per capita is disproportionately large.
I do like the slick conflating of "popular education" with "public schools" though. But, they didn't know better back then and didn't have the experience of governmental run institutional failures that would start racking up by the mid 20th century.
governmental run institutional failures that would start racking up by the mid 20th century.
Such as?
the TVA, the postal system, public education, all government provided services in big cities, Amtrak, most of the UK and Europe, anywhere communism took root, the Zimbabwe farm system, not to mentional all the industries in which federal regulation diminished competition and injected perverse incentives until the economy finally fell off its wheels in the 1970s
Social security
Your examples, not to put too fine a point on it, are silly, unless you define "failure" as "working."
Here's what Nobel Laureate Eric Maskin has to say: ""The market doesn't work very well when it comes to public goods." Words to live by.
Michael, I think you must be using a definition of the word "work" that I'm not familiar with.
In some of these cases (communism) the entities are defunct, in the remainder the entities are horridly inefficient and either can't provide the desired output or provide services/goods at inflated prices, representing money that could be spent elsewhere, such as for other public goods.
Nobel Prize notwithstanding, Maslin is no Adam Smith.
Here's what Nobel Laureate Eric Maskin has to say: ""The market doesn't work very well when it comes to public goods." Words to live by.
Yes, but only if you prefer to live poorly. If you prefer a creaking wreckeage of an economy with little future and not much present then government is the instrument of management for you.
Oh yeah, - the Venezualan agriculture industry as an example of how quickly government interference can destroy an industry, the Mexican petroleum industry, the American airlines, trucking and securities industries, all - and I mean *all* - collectivised agricultural systems, FAA, the FDA, the EPA.
Examples of the success that follows the extraction of governmental claws from the neck of the economy abound: South Korea, India, China, the Socialist Republic of Vietnam. The Socialist Republic of Vietnam? Yeah, look up the phrase "moi doi". Makes me crack up just thinking about it. All those red-hot reds fighting and dying for the establishment of a dictatorship of the proletariat which is busy making deals with Nike, Dell and IBM.
Nobel Prize notwithstanding, Maslin is no Adam Smith.
Or much of a Julian Simon or Hernando de Soto either.
There are many problems with what is going on, and not going on in our schools today. There are also solutions Check out this movie trailer for a documentary on our education system coming out in December/January called "Flunked" http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=xPDOPF2IY5g
I believe you are right. There are many things that are going wrong in our schools today. As a high school senior I know there are things wrong with our schools.
Ken, have you given up blogging? I do hope that you have not, and also that nothing terrible has happened.
michael wrote: Here's what Nobel Laureate Eric Maskin has to say: ""The market doesn't work very well when it comes to public goods." Words to live by.
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It does not follow that the government works well when it comes to public goods.
Hi Ken --
Miss reading your stuff! Hope everything with you and your family is going OK. Take care.
Cheryl in Singapore
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