Few Americans would claim that the nation’s school systems do not need improvement. However, there is little agreement on how to offer all students a high-quality education. Some argue that government schools need more funding. Others argue that school choice is the solution. Both of these arguments miss the fundamental issue. To improve our nation’s schools, we need innovation, and innovation requires freedom.
By its very nature, innovation challenges the status quo. Innovators envision something better than what currently exists. Often, they are mocked or scorned. When they are free to act on their ideas, they can prove their detractors wrong. Thomas Edison was dismissed as a fool when he announced that he was working on an electric light bulb. Henry Ford was mocked for his horseless carriage. Yet, because these men were free, they could demonstrate the value of their innovations. All of our lives are better because of them.
But what if Edison and Ford had to first obtain the approval of government officials? What would our lives be like if Steve Jobs, Bill Gates, Jeff Bezos, and countless other innovators had to grovel at the feet of politicians and bureaucrats for permission to act?
Unfortunately, very few are calling for more freedom for education innovators. Instead, we are offered variations on the status quo. Even school choice programs, which are a step in the right direction, embrace the status quo because the government controls the purse strings. To participate in school choice programs, private schools must meet whatever criteria and standards government officials demand.
It is impossible to predict what innovations education entrepreneurs will create. However, we do know that free individuals, and only free individuals, find new and creative ways to produce the values that human life requires. The lives of everyone are better because of the innovators.
If we truly want to improve the nation’s schools, we must free the innovators. We must remove the barriers that restrict a Steve Jobs or a Jeff Bezos from revolutionizing education. Innovation requires freedom. This is true for telephones, software, retailing, and education.