Neal McCluskey of the Cato Institute has penned one of the best explanations I’ve ever read about the divisive effect of government run schools.

Decisions debated literally every day in public schools thrust Americans into political conflict, whether over district budgets, dress codes, the amount of time children spend in art classes, or countless other matters. To see this, most people need do little more than read about school board meetings in their local newspapers. Although schools and districts may confront their own, specific issues, the conflicts those issues produce are driven by the same dynamic: All taxpayers must support the public schools, but only those able to summon sufficient political power can determine what the schools will teach and how they will be run. Because of that, political fighting is inherent to the system.

All public school conflicts have the potential to inflict social pain, but the most wrenching are those that pit people’s fundamental values— values that cannot be proven right or wrong, and that deserve equal respect by government— against each other. Whereas most conflicts have unique immediate causes, there are several common refrains that arise time and again.

I strongly encourage you to read the rest for yourself.

• Public School Values
• Mismanagement Continues at Madison County Schools
• Home schooling becoming more viable
• Madison residents do not support sales tax increase
• More on Utah’s school choice program

This entry was posted by Brian on Thursday, September 13th, 2007 at 9:00 pm and is filed under Education. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site. Please note the copyright policy.