Letter to the editor: Give education control back to parents

OPINION:

Given the Supreme Court case on parental rights and the Trump administration’s efforts to reform and dismantle the Education Department, I have a suggestion for putting education rights back into parents’ hands (“Justices grill Maryland county on parent opt-out options for LGBTQ story time,” Web, April 22).

Thirty-five years ago, Sweden had the second-worst education system in western Europe. It now consistently ranks in the top 10. Sweden is the only country in the world besides the U.S. in which the financing of education is done by the local, state (provincial) and national governments. During the ’90s, a conservative government was elected there, partly because of the education situation. What they did 
radically changed the quality and availability of schooling.

Sweden shut down most of the national bureaucracy and redirected the 33% of the money provided by the national government. It set up national standards for teachers and schools (most of which is also in place, if atrophied, in the U.S.). It then converted the rest of the funding into vouchers that followed the students to public or private schools of the parents’ choosing. Public schools could accept students outside their districts. Schools that failed to meet minimum standards were either  reformed or closed after two or three years of underperformance. Teachers who failed to meet standards were removed or retired. The result of all this: a massive increase in choice and parental control over education.  

Dismantling the U.S. Education Department will not increase parental power if the parents have no say in where the money goes. The vast majority of parents would very likely support emulating Sweden in giving them more choice over their children’s education. Such a plan would also counter to a huge degree the radical political left’s control of education in this country. It would also help prevent school funding being siphoned off to various leftist causes or to support illegals at the expense of American and legal-immigrant children.

JAMES BARENDS

Wayne, Pennsylvania