Brett Holubeck
Published: 2014
Total Pages: 0
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This paper examines the potential problems and solutions that could arise within the public education system when the federal and state governments make budget cuts because of their high levels of debt and the fiscal gap (difference between revenues and expenditures). The paper uses Michigan as a case study and examines its laws about dissolving school districts, the current state of Michigan schools (ten percent of Michigan schools began the 2013-2014 school year with a deficit), and the finances of Michigan's state government. The solutions addressed include granting more local control to run the schools (Distributism), looking at homeschooling and private schools for solutions, adopting parent-run schools, and enacting parent trigger laws. One solution is to adopt the economic philosophy of Distributism, which argues that public schools could be more effectively run on the local level. Parents and students best understand what they as individuals need to become more educated. They recognize the specific problems affecting individual students and are better able to decide how to help these students. Officials at the state and federal level do not have a grasp of the problems affecting individual students; they can only apply broad solutions that may be harmful or unhelpful to individuals or groups of students. Therefore, granting more control to parents, students and local officials may encourage solutions that are useful to those specific students in each locale and thereby improve the education system overall in a piecemeal manner. In addition, the paper analyzes how homeschooling and private schools are able to educate children for a smaller cost than the current public school system. The paper studies how parent-run schools in England operate and allow parents to have primary control over their children's education. The paper examines solutions that give parents and students more control, such as how parent trigger laws in four states allow parents to fire the school staff in failing schools and replace them with staff the parents choose. As the parties that are most affected by a child's education, parents and children have the most interest in ensuring that students receive an excellent education and are the best party to decide how to improve student education. The paper concludes that local control of the education system offers the best option for improving the education of America's youth while at the same time operating on a smaller, more efficient budget.
