The Choice Channel

The first time I ever saw the term “controlled choice” was in literature my child brought home from school when she entered kindergarten six or seven years ago. County school superintendent Dr. Donald Martin proclaimed he was proud that the school system supported “controlled choice” in choosing the school my child could attend when she entered first grade. I was given only two choices. In other words, the Board of Education grants you certain choices, excluding all others, that they feel are appropriate for your child. By controlling parents’ choices, the State is able to control parents; and, do it under the guise of giving them greater freedom. It is a ruse. I realized that the State had so much power that it dictated to me what my child would be taught and where my child would learn whatever the bureaucrats said she needed to know. I saw they were trying to trick me into believing I was free to choose what school my child would attend. But of course, they chose the choices, so how free of a choice was it really? Then it occurred to me that the whole concept of “controlled choice” is being applied at every level of government, not just our school boards, and is the very teeth of the beast we call Bureaucracy.

Parents worldwide should reject this notion of “controlled choice” that is being offered as a symbol of freedom in education. After all, if someone else controls your choices how free can you really be? As a friend of mine observed to me recently, when a gunman accosts you in an alley and says, “Give me your money or your life,” isn’t he offering you a controlled choice? Does controlled choice really represent some sort of freedom?

It is not freedom in education when parents are forced to choose between equally bad public schools for their beloved little ones. It is not freedom that parents are forced to pay for failing public schools when they could receive better value from their money being spent on schools in the private sector. True freedom in education would be parents controlling the bureaucrats rather than the bureaucrats controlling parents’ choices. Especially if and when the choices they choose to offer parents are all inferior to the choices they do not offer them.

“It is hard to imagine a more stupid or more dangerous way of making decisions than by putting those decisions in the hands of people who pay no price for being wrong.”

-Thomas Sowell

Personally, I think it would be wonderful if all parents could completely homeschool their children, at least in the basics such as spelling, reading, simple math, local and regional history, etc. But I know it is not always possible and that is why I have always been, and will continue to be, a strong advocate for parent’s choice when it comes to education. Parents should certainly not feel compelled to turn to government bureaucrats for such an important job as educating young minds, especially when it has already been proven that the bureaucrats do such a poor job. Parents should be free to explore all avenues of education, from homeschooling to private institutions. True freedom in education is realized only when “all choices” are available to parents, not just the “controlled choices” gracious granted to them by school system bureaucrats who think that they know better what is best for children than do their parents.

Shortly after I received my notification that the school system’s highest bureaucrat supported “controlled choice,” I wrote an open editorial for a local newspaper in which I informed the superintendent of my daughter’s public school district that his services were no longer required. As far as my family and I were concerned, it was the day we fired the local bureaucrats and took our child out of a failing education system. I said it then and I say it now, government today is filled with politicians that think it is their job to take care of us. Either we are too lazy to care for ourselves and our children; or, we are too stupid to know what is best for our precious offspring and ourselves. No matter the reason, the majority of politicians in this country today believe in their hearts that they must save us from ourselves. Even to the point of promoting and graduating failing children, inferiorly educated in public school systems, so as not to ruin their self-esteem.

Allowing politicians to control parents’ choices does not equal freedom in education or anything else for that matter. Children benefit the most when parents are free to choose from all the educational options available and not just a handful of controlled choices being offered by local, state and federal bureaucrats. The mindset of legislating for the betterment of society only guarantees the growth of the beast Bureaucracy. Politicians believe that once they have been elected to office, they must fix all that was broken by his/her predecessors. The problem is most of them are convinced that the problems of society, including properly educating our young people, can be solved through some sort of government intervention, agency or program. How can anyone expect greater freedom in education when government bureaucrats are controlling the number of choices parents are given when deciding where and how their precious offspring will be educated?

Politicians see government as a solution for everything; but when it comes to educating their children parents should see government as part of the problem. Beastly bureaucracy is born out of good intentions married to poor solutions. Only when politicians realize what constituents already know will true freedom in education be born. As I have said many times, more government always translates into less freedom. Controlling choices is an attempt to usurp freedom, not enhance it.

“One of the greatest delusions in the world is the hope
that the evils in this world are to be cured by legislation.”

- Thomas B. Reed (1886)