Day: May 28, 2006

We start with basic principles:

(1) It took us a long time to get into this mess. It will take us decades to get out.

(2) People have built their lives around the gummamint skoolz and need time to readjust to a free market.

(3) The new innovative private schools will need time to form, adapt, and adjust.

The vision is that the gummamint no longer runs or pays for skoolz. There are a host of reasons but the five big one are (a) it's not fair to steal from some people to educate other people's children; (b) the gummamint teaches stuff that are antithetical to the parent's beliefs; (c) the skoolz train the children that the gummamint is a God; (d) the gummamint skoolz are expensive, corrupt, and corrosive; (e) the gummamint does a very poor job of educating.

A free market in education will address all these problems by putting parent back in control of raising their children as they see fit. This means that we have to be ready to squelch a lot of hot air and stop trying to control people. We had freedom in this country before and we can have it again.

Let's assume that we need 4 decades to free our children from the specter of a poor gummamint education. If I was king, how would I do it?

For the first two decades, I would free about 5% of the children every year from the gummamint. This would allow the private sector to grown and the gummamint skoolz to wither. For the last two decades, I would reduce the subsidy of education 5% each year. See how nicely that works out. In the first two decades, the free market grows strong. In the second two decades, we wean the new industry off the gummamint ninny. At the end of forty years, we have solved the problem with a minimum of dislocation and maximized freedom.

Now lets examine the first two decades. We have some opportunities that have to be addressed. In the preparation for for Year  Zero, we have to address the existing gummamint skoolz, the people who work their now, the gummamint running it, the parents, and finally the students. Let's start in reverse order.

Dear Students: The State apologizes for making you the guinea pigs in a national experiment with gumammint skoolz. You will have to know that our transition plan will only help you a little bit. Rome wasn't built in a day. Hopefully the younger of you will benefit. The older will just have to be satisfied that when you are in the workforce you will no longer be burdened with this monster.

Dear Parents: The State is going to give you in NJ a 12k$ check to buy your child's education. Now before you go picking private schools, be advised that initially all checks will be RED. That means you have to redeem them at your local school. Every year for the next 20 years, the State is going to run a lottery. In this lottery, every child will be entered. Each year, 5% of the tickets drawn will result in that child getting a GREEN check. Those of you with a green check can spend that anywhere you want for your children's education. During these two decades, we will be licensing schools to accept green checks. Be advise the criteria for licensing will be financial stability NOT educational merit.  

Dear Teachers and Administrators: The State is getting out of the education business. It is great opportunity for you to deliver quality education while becoming an owner in your own business.

Dear Teacher's Union: The State is getting out of education. You should see if your members wish to participate in the brave new frontier of education. You as the union could seek to become a certified vendor of education in the state. In twenty years, there will no longer be any state employees in education. We urge you to plan accordingly.

Dear Taxpayer: Relief is on the way.

=== Notes about the first two decades ===

In the first "get ready" year, every child will get a "booklet" of 12 RED checks. It would be a twelve post dated checks to the first of each month. The gummanmint skoolz will take that red check booklet and redeem them monthly for their funding. This will begin simulating the buyer – seller relationship. Unlike today, the skoolz administrator and teacher have to get that red check from each parent. That should lead to some interesting conversations. The check has no value other than to get the process started.

Administrators and teachers are smart people. We don't necessarily want to lose them but we need to change the dynamics. Each skoolz will be "incorporated" with the existing people and assets. Let's call it the First Generic Neighborhood Skoolz. Two classes of stock will be issued to create the corporation with a twenty year lockup. Each worker in each FGNS will receive one hundred shares for each hundred dollars of their gross salary. They are now owners! Each municipality will give a long term lease to the assets in the skoolz to the FGNS in exchange for the Class B shares and a lien. Based of the free market value of the assets leased, the municipality receives one hundred shares for every hundred dollars of assets. In year zero, nothing trades. After that, everyone is free. The municipality releases the lien as the FGNS redeems its Class B shares.

The Government will transform into a referee. It's role is to certify the financial stability of those who seek to redeem RED CHECKS. Those entities have to post a performance bond to ensure that they deliver on promises. Just like any other government contract.

Year zero runs for a year, or two, to get the bugs out of the process. Then the "fun" begins.

Each year, for the next twenty, %5 percent of the children selected at random "go green". The parents receive a green check booklet that they can use at any approved vendor to buy an education for their child. They are the boss.

Each new child coming into the system will participate in an entry lottery. The appropriate percentage will be given green status. For example, in year 5, 25% are green. In year 15, 75% are green. Once a incoming child goes "green", they are green forever. If they are red, they may become green in a subsequent year. So the FGNS has a naturally declining population of "guaranteed customers". Guess they will be motivated to capture some of those "green kids".

Notice that inner cities skoolz are "interesting" in that they have a large number of "customers" in a single big group. Think there will be interest in running inner city schools?

=== Notes about the second two decades ===

We have now completely privatized education. Now we have to transition from a taxpayer pay to a parent pay.

Let's assume that we held the line an education checks are 12k$ per year. For the next twenty years, we will reduce the education check 5% per year. In twenty years, we will be out of using tax money to pay for education.

====

Comments?

 

http://jeffersonianlib.blogspot.com/2006/05/leftright-statist-collectivist-mass.html 

***Begin Quote***

How do we end this mass delusion and free the American people? First,we must be militant, radical and uncomprimising. No apologies for libertarian ideas or beliefs.
We must use the arts of propaganda, elections, and public issues to get the libertarian message out to the masses. We must reject and distinguish ourselves from conservatives. Libertarians are mistakenly considered conservatives. We are not anything of the sort. Libertarianism is radical, conservativism is not. Conservatism is a stagnant, rotten and corrupt statist delusion. We also must oppose the Left with more frequency. We must expose their hateful ideals of group identification, group catagorization, class warfare, anti-traditionalist statist agenda. We must defend free enterprise against statists, both right and left. One way is to expose the frauds of GATT, NAFTA,FTAA, and the WTO. These statist treaties are not free trade, but are statist government managed trade. We must also oppose all taxes, at all levels, all regulations, and all new laws designed to infringe on the right of people to live their lives as they see fit. We must show people the evils of empire and imperialism. We must point out the benefits of a Jeffersonian foreign policy of "Stategic Neutrality" and peace. All foreign wars must be opposed and all American troops brought home. We must show the American people that your life belongs to you and no one else! Without the right to own, control and manage your own property, you become a slave. Without the right to live your personal life by your own morals ( without infringing on the right of others to do the same), you are a slave. Without the right to be free of tyrannical laws and government, you are a slave. Without the right to associate or not associate with any one you choose, you are a slave. The worst type of slavery is the slavery of the mind. This type of slavery perpetuates the Left/ Right Statist Collectivist Mass Delusion. It is the type of slavery where you continue to think your free, but you are really in bondage.

Reject the slave mentality! Reject the idea that you exist to serve you "betters" in the Left/ Right Statist Collectivist Mass Delusion. Embrace radical libertarianism, and free the world. 

***End Quote***

Hmmm! Well, it's certainly not by writing long glumps of text.

We have to "DO" something.

My personal three targets remain:

(1) the fiat currency because it gives the gummamint a hidden tax to take all they want;

(2) the gummamint skoolz because they dumb down the future and train kids in socialism; and

(3) the gummamint's erosion of our rights by further inserting themselves into new areas.

How do we do that?

Ridicule them and their ideas. I don't think they take be made to look foolish well. And, people will say to themselves "well that's dumb". Every time that happens they lose a little of their power.

What have I done in the last thirty days to advance liberty?

(a) Chatted about the Spanish American War tax on cell phones to anyone who would listen.

(b) Expressed amazement everytime people give me stuff for "pretty little green presidential paintings" every time a buy somethings.

(c) Asked every parent if they wouldn't like to send their child to a private school instead of the government propaganda center.

While I often get looked at strangely, I don't get people saying "wow that's how to pay for a war", "yup those paintins r real pretty", or "no those zkoolz r gud nuff".

I think we have to "put a pebble in people's shoes" about just how much they want freedom.