A Message to Parents:

Educating hundreds of children and young adults five days of the week is a big job, and a lot of work. As a parent, you realize this. But at the same time, you probably wish your child’s individual needs could be better accommodated. Many parents around the United States are voicing their individual grievances with the public schools in their towns. Unfortunately, attending school board meetings is not likely to get your child the results that are crucial to his or her educational development.

It’s true that the school system, including the board, is staffed with plenty of employees who care about young people and want what’s best for them. However, increases in school funding and programs allegedly designed to help with problems in public education have not resulted in reversing the trend of declining literacy rates and test scores. Why doesn’t giving the schools more money work? Much has been written on the subject, and some will be linked to at the end of this document.

Education is a service, so it is hard not to feel “ripped off” when you compare the real costs of providing a quality education in the private market to amount in tax dollars we pay to the local public school.

Just imagine if grocery stores operated the way our school system does. How frustrating would it be if despite you being free to shop at other stores, you had to pay more than $1,000 to one store every six months, whether you shopped there or not. If the store was given the authority to coerce everyone in town to give them a chunk of their paychecks, how would that change the incentives of the store managers? “But, children should be guaranteed an education”, some may say. It is unlikely that those people would claim that education is more important than food! The most unfortunate part of all of this is that, while it is taught in schools that monopolies result in higher prices and poorer service due to a lack of competition, some think when it comes to education that this structure is somehow preferable.

The government school system is a monopoly. That’s why it has and will continue to get worse over time. Most people will agree that a quality education is very important to one’s future. Why in the world would you want the government to handle it?

You, the reader, are already taking an active role in your child’s education by coming to the board meetings. You must really care. Would you care enough to take on your child’s education without the hassle of dealing with the bureaucracy of the school system? Homeschooling may be an option for you.

Consider: Pull your school funding. Withhold 60% of your property taxes if you own a home or business in Keene. Take that 60% and donate it to local non-government schools, homeschool, un-school, or start your own school, like the Sudbury School.

Useful links to learn more:

The Underground History of American Education, by state teacher-of-the-year, John Taylor Gatto: http://johntaylorgatto.com/chapters/index.htm

Separation of School and State – SchoolandState.org

Unschooling – Wikipedia.org/wiki/Unschooling

Sudbury School – Wikipedia.org/wiki/Sudbury_school