Bitter Partisan Politics

by Walter Williams - December 6th - The Washington Times

We could finance education collectively through tuition tax credits or educational vouchers, but allow parents to choose — much like the GI Bill. Government financed the education, but veterans chose the school.

Government allocation of resources enhances the potential for human conflict, while market allocation reduces it. That also applies to contentious national issues such as Social Security and health care. You take care of your retirement and health care as you please, and I'll take care of mine as I please. If you prefer socialized retirement and health care, that's fine if you don't force others to participate.

I'm afraid most Americans view such a liberty-oriented solution with hostility. They believe they have a right to enlist the brute forces of government to impose their preferences on others.

Americans view liberty-oriented solutions with hostility? When did this happen? When did the prevailing view in this country become the idea that denying choice to others was tolerable? In education we have people who actually argue that vouchers, a program that increases the amount of money available for each student who does not chose a voucher, but reduces the total amount of money available for the teachers unions, harms the students left in school.

How can this be argued with a straight face. In some proposals the voucher program takes so little of the money in the school system that if 25% of the students opted for vouchers, it would increase the amount per student by almost the same percentage.

The teachers unions argue that letting go of the worst 25% of teachers (with 25% less students you don't need as many teachers) is intolerable. They therefore insist that the students left would not get as good an education.

In truth what the unions care about is the reduction in the number of union dues paying members. They do not care about the students. Teacher unions are most of the problem and never any part of the solution.

Great article.