Insanity, it is often said, is taking the same actions over and over and expecting different results. Many opponents of education vouchers in Texas provide an example of insanity.
State Rep. Harold Dutton, the chairman of the Texas House Public Education Committee, recently said,
What is the problem that you’re trying to cure with school choice? People have told me to my face that we think that parents who have their kids locked in a low performing school ought to have some way out? I said … why don’t we go fix the dang school?
To Dutton, the problem with government schools is a lack of funding. He refuses to acknowledge that legislators have been throwing money at government schools for decades and the danged schools haven’t been fixed.
One of the myriad of problems with government schools is the top down management that dominates. Legislators determine the schools’ funding. The Texas Education Agency determines the curriculum. Politicians and bureaucrats in Austin make the most important decisions regarding the education of Texas students.
This approach necessarily leaves the local schools—where students are actually taught—little flexibility to deal with the unique needs, interests, and desires of parents and students. Dutton believes that more money, not more freedom and innovation, is the solution.
Private schools do have flexibility. They can easily respond to the needs, interests, and desires of parents and students without being subjected to political battles over curriculum. They can add or remove courses or extracurricular activities based on what parents and students actually want without worrying about what the overlords in Austin might think.
Dutton’s solution isn’t really a solution. It is simply a reprise of the same failed approach that has long dominated government schools. More money won’t fix the danged government schools because the system is beyond repair. Any attempt to fix is, short of abolishing the system, is simply an example of insanity.