Parents Know Best for Children

In the late 1960s and early ‘70s, I was the headmaster of a private secondary school in Burnie, Tasmania. The Australian government gave the school, Marist College, a grant of $40,000 to build a library. When it was completed, Marist invited the minister for education, Malcolm Fraser, who later became prime minister, to speak at the opening.

“I have never understood the argument that parents who are willing to pay nothing for the education of their children are entitled to everything from the government,” Fraser commented, “while parents who are willing to pay something for the education of their children are entitled to nothing from the government.”

The critical issue is: Who has the right to decide how a child will be educated? Parents? Or the state and the teachers’ union?

Great Britain instituted a dual system of education in the late 1940s. It has not destroyed the public system as the prophets of doom foretold, although it is true that parents usually prefer the private system when offered the choice. Britain trusts parents to choose what is best for their children. The government rightly insists that schools must be accredited before they get government assistance. That is why it is foolish to argue, as American Federation of Teachers President Albert Shanker does, that vouchers could be used at schools set up by the Ku Klux Klan, which would not be accredited.

In Australia, federal and state aid was granted to private schools in the 1960s, at a time when the number of religious teachers was falling rapidly. Few Catholic schools closed. Without government support, there would have been massive closures--as there have been in the U.S. In 1965, there were some 5.2 million children in American Catholic schools. Today there are 2.6 million. Had government support been given, it is reasonable to believe that there would still be 5.2 million or more in the Catholic school system. Let us consider the consequences of that.

The first to benefit would be the 2.6 million children who would be getting a better education.

The second to benefit would be the parents of the 5.2 million children, since they would see their tax dollars used to educate their children in the schools of their choice.

The third to benefit would be the community. In New York, it costs $2,500 to educate a child in the city’s Catholic schools and $7,500 in public schools. Hence a $2,500 voucher for a parent to be able to choose a Catholic school would save the community $5,000. Transfer an equivalent figure to the 2.6 million children cut off from the Catholic schools since 1965, and the implications are staggering. It is cheaper for the community to pay 30% (or indeed 80%) of the costs of education in private schools, rather than have the private schools close and taxpayers pay 100% of the cost of educating those children.

It is strange that the United States, the champion of freedom, does not champion the freedom of parents to choose the school where their child is educated. It is strange that the U.S., the champion of private enterprise, is one of the few developed nations of the world that does not champion private enterprise in education.

In Australia, state aid for private schools became a major political issue in the ‘60s. The Liberal Party in Tasmania pledged to increase the the annual grant per student by $20; Labor refused to pledge an increase. The Catholic school principals persuaded Archbishop Guilford Young of Hobart to write the parents of every child in a Catholic school, pointing out the difference. Labor, expected to win, lost by one seat, and party leader Eric Reece blamed the archbishop’s letter.

This November, U.S. voters must decide between the anti-school choice policy of Bill Clinton and the pro-school choice policy of Bob Dole. In California, Gov. Pete Wilson is proposing vouchers for the poorest of the poor. It would be wise for the principals of private schools and parish priests throughout the U.S. to urge voters to take this issue under consideration when casting their ballots. It is dismaying that the Catholic hierarchy seems to have little to say about an issue of major importance to Catholic schools. Are they prepared to remain silent while the other half of Catholic schools close?

In Australia, the battle for school choice was won because people were prepared to fight. Are parents in the U.S. prepared to fight for their rights and for their children? Are independent school supporters prepared to fight?