When observers, critics, and proponents discuss and debate the subject of school choice, such discourse typically centers on one of three areas. The focus may be on the political, that is the policy, legislative, regulatory and/or mechanics of the various school choice models. Occaisionally, we will speak in economic terms, i.e. concpets of market forces, monopolies, incentives, and social and financial costs. In very rare instances, we may speak of school choice in terms of rights, nominally constitutional rights usually as defined and interpreted by Supreme Court decisions and opinions.
Admittedly, I have usually spoken about school choice in such terms as well, usually in the first two above mentioned categories and occaisionally in the third. But in all areas, we fail to understand and discuss the moral foundation underlying the school choice movement. Critics may quickly dismiss policy proposals and the economics of school choice. Dismissing the constitutional arguments may take more enhanced lingual gynmastics. However, despite our head in the sand approach to the morality of school choice, there are solidly American moral underpinnings to school choice even if we don't easily or readily acknowledge their existence. Moreover, the moral foundation of school choice cannot be easily countered by those who oppose school choice models, because they are so fundamentally American.
Over the next several days, I will explore some of the moral and philosophical foundations of school choice. School choice is not a panacea to all that ails our education system, but it does provide a more comfortable place for Americans to be when it comes to the place education occupies in our nation's psyche.
The Religious Nature of America
The United States is a very religious country. Most American profess to be religious and attend church, if not weekly, at least regularly. Even those who do not attend church admit to a belief in a higher power. Such spiritual devotion has, of course, a long history in America, being a nation settled by religious dissenters seeking a place to peaceably worship. Indeed, one of the major arguments against the ratification of the Constitution posited by the Anti-Federalists was a lack of a Bill of Rights that protected, among other things, the right to worship free of government interference.
The religious devotion of our founders has a role also in education. The largely Protestant demoniminations that settled America in the 17th and 18th Century found their moral compass not in a class of clergy, but in the Bible. Key to their religious beliefs was access to and the ability to read the Bible. Unlike Catholicism of the middle ages, where a priesthood was available to preach the contents of the Bible, Protestant sects used the Bible, read by individuals, to provide a foundation for their faith. Thus being able to read the Bible was a cornerstone of their faith.
In the 18th and early 19th Century, long before a public school system evolved in this country, most Americans, because of their faith, were functionally literate. The great chronicler of American democracy, Alexis de Tocqueville noted that everywhere he went, in every home he visited, even the roughest cabins in the frontier of Wisconsin, he would inevitably find a Bible and newspapers. Reading was necessary, not only for democractic institutions, but also for spriitual ones.
The fact that most Americans could read and had some modicum of education, whether it be some form of homeschooling or provided by the church through Sunday School, proved to be important in the development of our nation. The religious equality found in most Protestant demoninations, in that each person was able to read the main religious text, took root in America as political equality and educational equality as well. Of course, there were some people on the upper ends of the socio-economic scale that were able to afford more schooling, but at the base level, everyone had the same basic level of education.
Education As Secular Devotion
While all Americans do not profess the same religious faith, we all carry with us a secular devotion to the education of our children. It may indeed be the one truly universal American devotion. Education is both socially and civically paramount to the American psyche, central to American life, prosperity, and our prominence in the world. While education carries certain civic virtues, education contains a deeply personal aspect, one which rivals the personal faith. Yet, despite its importance to the American way of life, when it comes to education, America has abandoned its founding principles.
The current formulation of the American public education system runs directly counter the the fundamental founding principles of our nation, that of personal freedom, of life, liberty and the pursuit of happiness. When it comes to religion, Americans would no more tolerate the government telling them where and how to worship, if at all, as they would the government telling them what to name their children or which grocery story they should patronize. The importance of religious liberty occupies such a sacred place in our hearts that we have enshrined such a protection or liberty in our most basic law, the Constitution.
Yet when it comes to education, we have somehow accepted the fact that government shall tell us how to educate our children, when and where that education will take place and who will conduct that education. If Americans would not accept such dictates in our religious devotions, or lack thereof, why then have we accepted such dictates in our most important secular devotion?
In short, we have abdicated one of our most precious secular liberties, that of the choice in the manner in which our children will be educated.
We allow for the personal choice of a religious compass, but we, as a nation, have long considered a public school system, without option for the vast majority of Americans, to be dictated to us. Personal choice, personal responsibility and personal sacrifice were the hallmarks of our nation's founding. So when it comes to religious education, we have complete freedom, but when it comes to secular education, we have, essentially none.
The Religious and Secular Educations
Religion and schools cross often, and not necessarily in the realm of parochial schools or vouchers. In the Supreme Court case of Wisconsin v. Yoder, the Amish in Wisconsin sued the state, arguing that the law requiring universal, compulsory education until the age of 16 violated their freedom of religion. The Court held that the state's interest in universal education must be balanced against the interests and fundamental rights of individuals. In the Yoder case, the Amish believed that compulsory education beyond the eighth grade exposed their children to worldly influences they disagreed with and sought to protect their children against.
The Amish all over the United States have a distinct, but hardly unique, religious fervor. They take seriously both the religious and the secular education of their children. It is merely that the Amish put a higher premium on the religious education of their children than on the secular.
Most Americans, whether they admit to it or not, seek to raise their children within certain moral guidelines. Even if those guidelines are not overtly religious, the morality we seek to impart upon our children carries a special place in the development of young minds. That moral upbringing may be similar to many others, but the method of moral instruction, its nature, and its content are all under the sole decision-making authority of the parents.
But moral teaching is, obviously, not the only type of education necessary for a child. Secular education, the three R's, carries as much weight. But beyond the basics of content come certain distinctive differences in education. Some children may show a talent or interest in sciences, others in the arts, still others in the trades. Yet for most parents, the ability to choose an educational path to match their child's interests is severly circumscribed by law, by geography, and, unfortunately, by now-ingrained tradition of deference to the state.
Of course, one can simply argue, that a parent has the faculty to impart a moral education on their children but not a secular education. To which the response is hogwash. Some parents choose to have their children's religious and moral education provided through mechanisms such as Sunday school or regular church attendance. Others may choose to provide such instruction personally. There is a choice both in the nature and delivery of religious or moral education.
Most parents will prefer to have someone else provide the secular instruction as well. Some have the desire and ability to conduct such education themselves, but for most it will be delegated to others. School choice allows for that delegation but such delegation is not limited by the choices approved or provided by the state. Of course some choice is provided now, but in reality, those options are for those who can afford to send children to different schools or those willing to take on the duty themselves. The same options for both delivery and content of secular education is not present on the anywhere near the same scale as religious education.
School choice allows for the greatest freedom to pursue our secular devotion of education with teh same fervor that we apply to our religious life. We protect, and fight for, our right to worship as we choose. We possess the same absolute freedom to provide religious or moral instruction in any manner we choose. Is not the right to secularly educate as we choose just as important?
No comments:
Post a Comment