This article is the first in a series of three articles on education reform
The state of New Jersey will spend approximately $10 billion this year teaching children that many values are equal. You may want to teach your children the moral value that sex outside of marriage is wrong. But if you send your child to the government school system, a teacher - who represents to your child the authority of the state--may undermine what you say at home by telling your child that she must decide what is right for herself.
hotel rates Sorrento Believers in religious freedom want to be able to educate their children without being undermined by the State. They want to be able to choose their children's schools - public or private, secular or religious - so that they can have the values they teach at home reinforced at their children's schools. Indeed, parents possess a natural right--one which the just government must respect - to direct the moral education of their children.
This is not much talked about today, but a century ago there was an effort made to ban private education and home-schooling altogether. It was not an effort to expand opportunity, but was instead an outright bid by political elites to create absolute control over the socialization of America's children. In its 1925 decision, Pierce v Society of Sisters, the United States Supreme Court rejected this grab for power and ruled that a "child is not the mere creature of the state." Parents, the Court ruled, have a prior right over the state to determine the appropriate education of their children. That was one decision which the Supreme Court got right and made consistent with the thinking of our Founding Fathers. And yet, it is a right that is clearly being denied most parents in actual, practical fact.
High state, local, and school taxes make it impossible for most parents to be able to afford a private education for their children. After paying half of their income in taxes, most parents are denied, for all practical purposes, the full exercise of their right to direct the moral education of their children.
The power to tax is the power to destroy. If tax rates were 100 percent of income, there is not one American who would be able to afford a church-school education for his or her child. At our already high levels of taxation, government has effectively destroyed the freedom of most Americans to afford such schooling. The exercise of an inalienable right by the rich alone is not what justice is about!
alberghi a Riga Those of us who want our government to respect our natural rights to guide the education of our children are not asking for the government to pay for the education of our children. All we want is for the government to leave us enough of our own money, after taxes, so that we can afford to pay for the education of our children in non-government schools if we choose.
Legislation that would help us achieve this was passed by Congress last year, but was vetoed by President Clinton. The bill would have created "Education Savings Accounts" where money could grow tax-free to fund education-related expenses, such as private school tuition, tutoring, music lessons, or the purchase of a computer.
Porto cheap hotels The same goal could also be accomplished by instituting a universal tax credit that could be taken by anyone who pays for the education of a child - a relative, a friend, a wealthy individual or a corporation - not just a parent. This tax credit (not just a deduction) would reduce the contributor's tax liability by one full dollar for every dollar spent on education-related expenses. Such tax credits would provide ample education funding for the children of poor families, as well as for the children of rich families, while leaving the control of every child's education in his or her parents' hands.
Here at the state level, I am fighting to enact legislation that would take a step towards expanding religious freedom by funding education vouchers with an advance against the child's future sales and income taxes. Even New Jersey families on welfare pay sales taxes. Over the average lifetime of an individual, huge amounts of sales taxes are paid to the state, easily covering the up-front cost of a small education voucher. This would be an investment in the future of New Jersey's children, while securing the right of parents to choose the education that best fits both their values and the individualized needs of their children - without using government money.
What would happen to individual virtue in America if our government were suddenly to respect the human right of parents to direct the moral education of their children and passed one of these educational choice plans? It would soar! Some parents would continue to enroll their children in schools that teach moral relativism. But most parents would, by their free choice, enroll their children in schools that teach not only right and wrong, but also why things are right or wrong.
The fight for school choice is about more than just education reform. It is a fight to secure one of our most basic liberties: the right of parents, regardless of income, to direct their children's education (which is directly connected to the right of religious freedom). Government should not hamper the right of parents to teach their children their religious beliefs. This is the principle we are fighting for!