By Parrish Miller
What is the purpose of promoting education choice? As I see it, there are two related but distinct goals served by this effort. The first is to provide families with not just the legal right to opt out of government schools (which they have in most states) but also the practical means to do so. The second is to push back against the destructive influence government schools have had (and continue to have) on our society and culture.
My policy proposal for real education choice in Idaho is a fully refundable state income tax credit of $10,000 for every dependent aged 6-17 who doesn’t attend government school.
How families choose to utilize this money in educating their kids should be left entirely to their discretion. The last thing we should support is incompetent government bureaucrats micromanaging these decisions.
The funding for these tax credits should come entirely and directly from the government school budget, meaning all the kids who don’t attend a government school get to take their full share of government school funding with them to the private sector.
This proposal allows for the money taken from taxpayers and allocated for education to follow the kids out of the failing indoctrination centers run by the government and into the private sector. This is a WIN for the taxpayers, a WIN for the kids, and a WIN for Western Civilization.
Anyone who says this effort will harm or destroy government schools is implicitly acknowledging that government schools cannot survive in a market environment where they must compete with private-sector alternatives. What a damning indictment of their failures!
Education choice is also a partial solution to the growing problem of groomers, sexual abusers, and mentally ill government school employees attempting to indoctrinate and confuse impressionable children about their gender and sexuality. Obviously, education choice won’t fully solve this issue or eliminate all sources of cultural Marxism, but it does provide a practical means for conscientious parents to protect their kids from this type of deviance and abuse.
Conservative states (and those that pretend to be conservative like Idaho) need to implement REAL education choice, not government-controlled grants or savings accounts with strings attached. Parents and families need to be able to get their kids—and their money—out of these failing government institutions without inviting a different kind of state intrusion into their lives.
The opposition will, of course, fight tooth and nail to maintain the education monopoly that grants them unfettered access to your children’s minds, but their ferocity should only serve to strengthen our resolve. Government schools aren’t a problem to fix, they are an enemy to vanquish. Our future depends on it.
In hoc signo vinces!
Parrish Miller is a web designer and political activist in Idaho. Visit his website at parrishmiller.com.
