By Marlene McMillan
August 2, 2023
A Euphemism is a nice word that stands in place of a less-appealing or desirable word. Choice seems to be irresistible. Who doesn’t want more choice? Sometimes we have to be willing to consider the only choices presented are 50 shades of tyranny. Liberty is not on the menu and hopefully you won’t have the presence of mind to notice.
If the “freedom lovers” currently promoting School Choice/Vouchers/Tuition Tax Credits/Educational Grants, etc. were really promoting Liberty, they would realize their programs are based on false premises. Some of those false premises are listed below. The way to correct the equation is to correct the premise – not ignore it, say you don’t believe in it, or malign the person who dares to say it out loud. Wrong in premise equals wrong in result.
Remember the labels must change and the details be re-arranged to keep us believing it is possible to breach the Immutable Laws of the Universe – one of which is control follows money. It is universal, unchanging, and immutable that you cannot take government money without government regulation. Legislation, by definition, is regulation.
As each generation has become more government dependent in their thinking, they have not realized that they are being subtly and consistently conditioned to petition civil government for rights they already have.
The False Premises on which Voucher Support is Built:
1. You can take government money without government control.
2. Children are entitled to their fair share of public monies used for education in their school district. (Entitlements)
3. Once money is in the coffers of the ISD it is still the taxpayer’s money.
4. The children belong to themselves and/or to their parents.
5. It is an accepted fact that education is a function of civil government and everyone should pay for the education of everyone else’s children.
6. Parents don’t have a choice now. (Yes, they do. They just don’t want to pay for it themselves.)
7. Vouchers promote free enterprise competition between government and private schools, thus improving education for all children.
If an idea is wrong in premise, it is wrong in result. Truth may or may not bring immediate pain, but always brings long-term peace. A lie brings the illusion of immediate relief, but always brings long-term suffering.
Consider and Ponder:
1. For there to be peace in a nation or family, then all the children must be taught by the LORD and about the LORD. (Deuteronomy 6 and Isaiah 54)
2. Freedom of thought is more important for Liberty than convenience. To have freedom of thought, you must have parental control of education.
3. To have a strong nation, you cannot have a dependency or entitlement mindset.
4. A person values what they have to pay for. Until the method of funding education is changed, there will be no substantive change in the result of education.
5. Vouchers take away educational freedom under the guise of providing it.
6. You get more of what you subsidize and less of what you penalize.
7. The goal and content of private and government education is different. Private is to prepare children to be self-governing for their own safety and happiness whereas the State school is to prepare children to conform for the so-called good of the collective. These opposing goals cannot be paid for by the same source.
8. Education is inherently religious. The idea that the civil government can provide a secular education that is neutral is a logical impossibility.
9. Control follows money. He who pays controls. Government money comes with government strings attached. The civil government cannot throw money in the streets. Regulations are inherent to all voucher schemes.
As soon as a private school takes government money, it becomes a government school. He who pays controls. This includes both control of the process and an interest in the outcome. Because the government issues the voucher, they have paid, thus, they have rights that can circumvent and overrule those of the parent. This is the core of much of the conflict over what is taught in public schools today. Ignoring this point does not make it any less important or less encroaching.
Freedom of thought requires freedom of finance. Freedom of finance leads to freedom of thought. If you want to be free–instead of demanding freedom while lobbying to get someone else to pay your way–you should be spending your time figuring out how to pay your own way. “Affordability” is a matter of priorities, not a matter of capacity.
“I don’t care–race, gender, ethnicity–free stuff is very seductive… The more seductively politicians promise people things it is tough to resist. Even hard-working people eventually will stop and say, ‘Why am I being fiscally responsible when my neighbor isn’t?’ I think it is going to be a very big challenge to fight back dependency. Remember the last election it was not the unemployment rate that mattered, it was the dependency rate.” —Andrea Tanteros on The Five, 2/26/13
“Vouchers are based on the philosophy of entitlement–a belief that the government ‘owes’ every child the best possible education that is equal in quality to that which is provided for every other child. When quality is inadequate, attention is drawn away from the real issue, and the topic becomes the amount of funds spent per child.” —Jackie Newbrough, 2004
You have to ask the right questions to get the right answers. Principles solve problems. You have to understand Liberty to have a vision for Liberty. Without a vision, the people perish. If the best vision you have is that of government dependency, then that is the best you will get.
Welfare disincentivizes students to learn since their future support is not dependent upon their own knowledge or skills, but upon the civil government.
Vouchers are based on the redistribution of wealth. Vouchers are rooted in socialism.
“Public schools are based on four false premises: 1. Welfare works, 2. Socialism works, 3. Parents have insufficient wisdom, and 4. We can teach character without mentioning God. We need to replace those false premises with truisms, and the truisms I suggest are: 1. Responsibility works, 2. Freedom works, 3. Parents have more wisdom than politicians, and 4. To teach character, we must integrate three factors: the reason for morality, examples of morality, and instruction in morality.” -Marshall Fritz, The Plano Star Currier
How did a Statist position like School Choice become a Conservative talking point? What if all the “Conservative” organizations promoting any form of educational redistribution scheme had instead spent the same amount of time, money, and effort teaching parents to find the inner courage to take action without the funding of civil government? What if parents who wanted to give their children a better education were taught how to do that, where to find inexpensive resources, and how to rearrange their lives to make it happen? What if churches set up micro-schools, encouraged families to start pod schools, homeschool, and just get off the educational treadmill in their own way? What if the School Choice lobbyists quit using the euphemisms of “helping parents provide a better education for their children” were truthful and admitted, “I lobby to make people more dependent on civil government.”?
Marlene McMillan, D. Min., wrote her doctoral dissertation on the subject “The Church/State implications of Tuition Tax Credits and Vouchers.” She is available for public forum presentations and Town Hall Debates on the subject of Vouchers and civil government regulation of private education as well as Common Core, Continuous Education Reform, and topics relating to the development of a Biblical Worldview.
Dr. Marlene’s ability to clearly present the principles (that the opposition may prefer to keep clouded) and to explain in easy-to-understand language where violation of those principles will lead has caused her to be placed on the Do-not-debate list of some major organizations.
Want a lively, high-attendance program for your group? Sponsor a Town Hall Debate on Vouchers and School Choice, Social Justice, Education is Inherently Religious or other Liberty topics and have Dr. Marlene present an uncompromising apology for Liberty. Warning! Some of your members might reject Vouchers, Tuition Tax-Credits or Educational Grants as the solution by the end of such an event.
© 2023 Marlene McMillan – All Rights Reserved
E-Mail Dr. Marlene McMillan: contact@WhyLibertyMatters.com
Website: https://WhyLibertyMatters.com
