Tax Credits and the Separation Issue

The state, religion and the U.S. Supreme Court
by Linda Stamato and Sanford M. Jaffe

"The First Amendment’s establishment clause, meant to protect religion against any intrusion by the state or, to put it another way, to ban government from the establishment of religion, has stood, despite challenges, until this decision, which allows the use of tax credits to pay for religious school tuition. Not, by the way, because the court had a close look at what the state of Arizona in this case was doing — aiding religious schools — but saying it didn’t have to look at that issue because those who were bringing the case had no standing to challenge it."

Why didn't "those who were bringing the case [have] no standing to challenge it"?

Today’s landmark decision [Arizona Christian School Tuition Organization v. Winn] declared that the plaintiffs in the case lack standing to bring the challenge in the first instance because the program is funded by private contributions, not government funds.

“When Arizona taxpayers choose to contribute to [School Tuition Organizations], they spend their own money, not money the State has collected from respondents or from other taxpayers,” wrote Justice Anthony M. Kennedy, for the 5-4 majority. “While the State, at the outset, affords the opportunity to create and contribute to [a School Tuition Organization], the tax credit system is implemented by private action and with no state intervention. Objecting taxpayers know that their fellow citizens, not the State, decide to contribute and in fact make the contribution.”

“Like contributions that lead to charitable tax deductions, contributions yielding [School Tuition Organization] tax credits are not owed to the State and, in fact, pass directly from taxpayers to private organizations. Respondents’ contrary position assumes that income should be treated as if it were government property even if it has not come into the tax collector’s hands. That premise finds no basis in standing jurisprudence,” continued Kennedy. (U.S. Supreme Court Dismisses Legal Challenge to Arizona School Choice Program)

It comes down to two fundamentally different views of concerning the relationship between the state and the individual - i.e., collectivism vs. individualism. The authors acknowledge this conflict, saying "It came down to determining whether the granting of a tax credit is the functional equivalent of collecting and spending tax money".

For their part, the court minority opinion holds:

[A]ssume a state wishes to subsidize the ownership of crucifixes in one of three ways. It could purchase them in bulk and distribute them; it could reimburse buyers with a check; or it could pay with a tax credit. ... Now, really — do taxpayers have less reason to complain if the state selects the last of these three options?

I've left the following comments:

zemack April 30, 2011 at 8:20AM

On tax credits, the authors are easily refuted on the facts. Who is "the tax payer"? It's the person who earned it. A person earns $100. He decides to take advantage of an education tax credit program. He spends it according to his own judgement. His tax liability is thus reduced by $100. He is simply not sending it to the government. No other taxpayer is involved. In the case of education tax credits, money spent on education doesn't change. What changes is who decides how it is spent. Follow the money: private taxpayer to private institution. The government is out of the loop. In what way are “the taxpayers” or the government subsidizing religion? They are not. Every dollar in question involves only the taxpayer that earned it.

There are two broader issues involved here, though. First, does the citizen’s life belong to the state, or is the state the servant of the citizens? Who has first claim on the nation’s earnings, and first responsibility for the education of the child? Is it those who earned the money, and those who brought the child into the world? Or, is it the state. The authors argue for the state, and thus support a totalitarian concept. That is the root of their position.

The second issue involves the church/state issue. Here, the authors are 100% correct. People have an unalienable right to their religious beliefs, including the right to believe in and practice no religion at all. Any tax funding of religion is a threat to that freedom. The corollary is that no one should be forced to support, through their taxes, religious ideas they may or may not agree with. The separation doctrine protects religion from government, and us from religion. Fair enough, and I concur.

So, why should I be forced to support, through my taxes, educational ideas that I may or may not agree with, or that “offend” me? I abhor the collectivist theories of John Dewey, which dominates modern progressive education. I believe in the individualist educational and epistemological philosophies of Maria Montessori and Ayn Rand. Why should I be forced to pay for Dewey? And why should I be forced to pay for the education of other people’s children, any more than be forced to pay for the religious training of those same children?

When government controls education, it controls what is taught and how it is taught. It controls the flow of ideas. The very convincing arguments in favor of the separation of church and state, clearly articulated by the authors, apply equally to education generally. Phasing out and abolishing the government-run public schools – i.e., the separation of school and state – follows logically from the church/state issue. The ultimate answer to the tax credit issue is to abolish education taxes altogether.

My Objective Standard Article - Vouchers vs. Tax Credits

My article, Toward a Free Market in Education: School Vouchers or Tax Credits?, appears in this Spring’s addition of The Objective Standard. It seeks to move the parental school choice movement in the direction of less government control by embracing properly structured tax credits while rejecting any incarnation of government-funded private school vouchers. The idea of education tax credits has, of course, been around for a long time. What I’ve sought to do is pull together a plan that carries the idea to its full logical implications – in effect, bringing about the separation of education and state one parent, and one child, at a time.

Parental school choice has been a focus of mine for at least 20 years. My thinking on the subject has evolved over time, culminating in the plan I submit in the TOS piece. I believe that the time is right for this article. When I first latched on to it, the idea that all parents should be able to choose their children’s school through some manner of redirecting their education tax dollars was considered a fringe issue not worthy of much serious consideration, even though it had been more than 30 years since Milton Friedman launched the idea in the 1950s. Today, we see choice programs popping up around the nation. In New Jersey, Governor Chris Christie has endorsed the nation’s first statewide universal parental choice initiative.

The political winds are now at the backs of the choice movement. This is a good thing, up to a point. It represents the most serious challenge to the hegemony of the government’s virtual education monopoly at least in my lifetime, and probably ever. It is my view that the public school establishment is on the ropes, and major changes are on the way. The growing strength of the school choice movement is evidence of that. But, the movement needs more. Its current thrust could turn the promise of parental school choice into a disaster for the private school sector, and set back the cause of educational freedom by years, if not decades.

The school choice debate needs a healthy infusion of the argument from individual rights, with all that that implies. This article should help open the door wide to that infusion. I look forward to answering questions and objections concerning my plan, especially from those that may come from the reactionary defenders of the status quo.

Finally, I want to acknowledge the help I received in writing the TOS article. My daughter Christine and wife Kathy offered valuable proofreading services on my first draft submission to the editors. Though the final article was significantly revamped through the editing process and bore significant revisions in structure and content to the original version, their help should be acknowledged. I cannot overstate the assistance given to me by TOS’s Editor Craig Biddle and Assistant Editor Alan Germani. There are more questions and complexities to the idea of a tax credit-based transition to a free education market than can be dealt with in a short article. A short book could probably be written on the subject. In constructing my case I was often prone to wonder off into different directions which, though I thought important, tended to dilute my theme. Craig and Alan persistently and patiently kept me on message – to say nothing of the many important suggestions and guidance they offered.

I hope you enjoy the article.

Related Reading:

One Way to Help a Journalism Industry in Crisis: Make J-School History By Kevin D. Williamson

More on NJ's Municipal Welfare

Trenton crowd's constitutionally incapable of property-tax reform, by Paul Mulshine

In this article Paul Mulshine discusses the idea of a property tax cap in NJ, and touches on the nature of Trenton's redistributionist state aid scheme.

I've left the following comments:

zemack June 23, 2010 at 8:53PM
Follow

The core issue is much bigger than quibbling over which towns get how much state aid. The issue is the validity of state aid to municipalities as such, or what I call municipal welfare. On the face of it, it makes no sense to send income tax dollars to Trenton, in order to get it back in state aid checks. Of course, the real purpose is wealth redistribution.

Municipal welfare is wrong for the same reason any government-imposed redistributionist scheme is wrong. It is immoral, unconstitutional, and a violation of individual rights and the proper function of government. In addition, like all socialist schemes, it doesn’t work. The current incarnation of the municipal state aid scheme started in the 1970s with the court-pressured imposition of the income tax. Since then, income tax rates have soared, state budgets sank increasingly into the red, aid-fed municipal budgets swelled, and all the while, property taxes soared. And what are we left with? – Abbott districts that are so bad that even many liberals support letting parents get their kids out of Abbott schools via vouchers under the Opportunity Scholarship Act. Only socialism could pull that off.

"It’s not fair," [Assemblywoman Allison Littell McHose of Sussex County] said. "I think people finally understand that they are paying for their own school and they are paying for these Abbott districts on top of it."

No, it is not fair. The whole purpose of municipal welfare is just that. So, why not see that the Emperor has no clothes? Why not adopt a GOP platform plank to repeal municipal state aid, which now consumes more than half the state budget, along with the income tax that funds it? Come to think of it, if forcing people in one town to pay for the education of children in the next town is unfair, then why isn’t it just as unfair to force them to pay for the education of children on the next block?

But that would be another topic – free market capitalism. Republicans and conservatives just can’t seem to let go of socialism when it comes to education.

Commentary 50-Wood on Public Pre-School

Funding pre-K and fighting crime

Posted by Fran Wood/ The Star-Ledger December 10, 2008 5:31AM
Categories: Family & Kids
If you're among the considerable number of New Jerseyans who question the value of taxpayer-funded preschool education, you may want to take note of some astonishing statistics reported in Trenton yesterday.

Fight Crime: Invest in Kids, a national nonprofit anti-crime organization of more than 4,500 police chiefs, sheriffs, prosecutors and violence survivors, unveiled a report touting the results of several studies contrasting violence and crime among children who were enrolled in early childhood education programs vs. those who were not.


Two such studies, conducted over a 40-year period, are particularly persuasive eye-openers.

The first comes out of the High/Scope Perry Preschool Program in Ypsilanti, Mich., begun in 1962 to gather data on the lifetime effects of preschool. It involved a group of at-risk, low-income 3- and 4-year-olds, half of whom were randomly enrolled in an education program of one to two years with a home visiting component. The companion group, also randomly selected, received no such program.

Data released in 2004, according to Fight Crime; Invest in Kids vice president Jeff Kirsch, showed that 23 years later, those who had no preschool program were five times more likely to be criminal offenders.

By age 40, according to the report, those not enrolled in the program were "more than twice as likely to become career offenders (with more than 10 arrests) and twice as likely to be arrested for violent crimes."

They also were more likely to abuse illegal drugs, four times more likely to be arrested for drug felonies and seven times more likely to be arrested for possession of dangerous drugs.

Comparable research in another study, conducted in Chicago, showed similar results.

That study involved 989 3- and 4-year-olds enrolled in the city's federally funded Child-Parent Centers as well as 550 nonparticipants. Comparison of these groups over time showed that those who did not participate in the program were "70 percent more likely to be arrested for a violent crime by age 18" and "24 percent more likely to have been incarcerated as young adults."

The conclusion: The Chicago program "will have prevented an estimated 33,000 crimes by the time the children who have attended the program reach 18."

That's a number that will get your attention.

Nationally, these are the programs with the greatest longevity and thus most convincingly demonstrate the impact of pre-K programs for at-risk children. But they are by no means the only such programs.

Low-income children not enrolled in North Carolina's Smart Start program, for instance, were shown to be twice as likely to engage in "aggressive acts and poor temper control, anxiety and hyperactivity in kindergarten" - behaviors shown to be precursors of "high levels of antisocial and delinquent behavior later in life."

The long-running, federally funded Head Start programs for low-income 3- to 5-year-olds have consistently shown that adults who attended them as children "are less likely to commit crimes than adults from similar backgrounds who did not attend."

It's long been understood that high-quality preschool programs for children who would otherwise get little preparatory training can make an enormous difference in their ability to succeed in school, which in turn makes them far more likely to become successful adults.

What has not been touted sufficiently is that such programs, by providing toddlers with a strong foundation of learning and socialization skills, can also help reduce crime.

"Law enforcement understands this, having dealt with parts of society most of us don't deal with very often," says Kirsch. He emphasizes that his group's members "are very conservative people who don't approach this from let's-help-these-poor-kids. They're hard-nosed realists dealing with very tough populations. They understand kids become who they are based on what happens to them in their early years, and if we miss that, we pay for many years to come."

He concedes the early education approach is not a quick fix.

"We're not saying every kid who gets pre-K is going to stay on the straight and narrow, nor that any kid who doesn't is going to be a criminal. But pre-K for at-risk kids changes the odds."

Here in New Jersey, there has been an abundance of public resentment at spending tax dollars on such programs. But without public programs, pre-K education simply won't happen for most low-income children.

"It's very, very expensive for families to afford quality pre-K," says Kirsch.

Many government programs are promoted as "investments," and it's true that some pay off better than others. Looking at this new data, it's hard to argue that pre-K isn't one of the smartest things we can do with our public dollars.


My Commentary:

Posted by Zemack on 12/12/08 at 4:32PM
The implication here is if you don't submit to a hostile government takeover of pre-schooling, you are pro-crime. This is a classic statist intellectual package-deal. Pre-school is not the issue here. Expanded government power over education, and the consequent violation of individual rights, is the issue.

Whose educational philosophy will be imposed on the parents and children? Will children be trained to subordinate their own judgement to the arbitrary will of some authority, whether the teacher or the class as a group? Or will they be encouraged to think independently? Will they be coerced into "sharing" their learning experiences with any other child who wants to nose in on their current activity? Or will they be allowed the freedom to concentrate their attention on the task at hand without interruption, thus discovering the principle of respect for the rights of others?

Will the government-run pre-schools be used as an indoctrination tool for the purpose of bringing about "social change", as the father of modern "progressive" education advocated...the self-described socialist John Dewey? Or will the pre-schools be an environment where children can develop their individual cognitive mental skills consistent with each child's unique developmental timetable, with the ultimate goal being intellectual independence, as advocated my Maria Montessori? Will children "learn" through rote memorization (i.e., Give them a fish.), or will they learn to use their conceptual, abstract faculty in order to hierarchize and integrate their acquired knowledge according to essential principles (Teach them to fish.)?

What is meant by "public dollars"? There is no such thing. The "Public" dollars of which Ms. Wood refers are the earnings of private citizens taken by force of taxation, to be used by politically powerful groups for purposes that the earners may oppose such as the ongoing hostile pre-school takeover by the coercive government education monopoly. To push public pre-school funded by money confiscated by force from unwilling taxpayers...including those parents taking responsibility for their own children's pre-school...under the pretense of preventing crime is a monumental conceptual evasion. At least street thugs are honest enough not to claim that they are robbing their victims for their own good, or for the good of "society".

Why is it "investment" when politicians spend other peoples' money, but not when spent by those who earned it? Why is it just to force parents to pay for the education of other peoples' children in accordance with someone else's agenda?

Rather than expand the government school monopoly, the pre-school market should be left free. Rather than having their earnings confiscated through taxation, parents should be able to claim a direct credit against their existing school taxes so that they can use their own money for their own child's pre-school education. That some parents would renege on their responsibilities is no reason to violate the rights of all other parents. To sacrifice the responsible parents to the irresponsible is a moral crime. Aiding responsible, but poor, parents is certainly a worthy undertaking, and I commend anyone who chooses to step up in that regard. But charity is a private, voluntary matter, engaged in by people of good will. Good will ends where physical coercion begins. Show me someone who strives to practice charity with other peoples' tax money, and I'll show you a phony.

This much Ms. Wood and I agree on. I believe that the first few years of any child's life is a critical time for mental development. Consequently, pre-school should be a cornerstone of that period. Because learning how to think, the essence of early childhood education, is exclusively a private undertaking, it is a time when the privacy needs of the child must be stringently respected. So the right pre-school, governed by the right philosophy, is critical here. I favor the "concentrated attention" method of Maria Montessori, which focuses on the development of the child's proper method of mental functioning, the conceptual faculty. Homeschooling, which at this age level is well within the means and capabilities of any motivated parent, is far preferable to an inferior pre-school, which can do more harm than good. The responsibility for these decisions rests with the parents.

The public schools should stay out of the pre-school area of education. But if it is going to offer pre-school, it must be offered strictly on a voluntary full tuition basis only. Their should be no taxpayer subsidy...no "public dollars"...whatsoever. Forcing already over-taxed parents (or anyone else) to foot the pre-school expenses of other parents is immoral. Forcing anyone to support educational ideas with which one disagrees is contrary to the principles of a free society. The educational needs of the child are fundamentally the responsibility of the parents who brought that child into the world. A free pre-school market protects the rights of all parents to fulfill their obligations according to their own rational judgement. Pre-school is too important to be placed under state control.


Others' Commentary:

Posted by DiscussedTed on 12/12/08 at 9:19PM
Zemack:

You make me realize how many extraordinary people there are out there among the "common people."

Believe me, I mean this as a compliment. More brains, more thought, and more intellectual honesty than the entire community of newspaper editors.

Whatever the appropriate holiday greetings are for you, I will simply wish you a Merry Christmas, and hope that you understand the intent.

Posted by blarneyboy on 12/13/08 at 2:23AM
Zemack, I echo Discussed Ted's sentiments. If there is a pre-K developed under your guidelines, it should be called "The Zemack School of Common Sense". Don't hold your breath.


My Commentary:

Posted by Zemack on 12/13/08 at 6:57PM
DiscussedTed:

You make me realize how many extraordinary people there are out there among the "common people."

Thank you. You and Blarneyboy, whose thoughtful commentary I have enjoyed reading elsewhere in NJVoices (although we don't always agree), prove that it is obvious I'm not the only one. There is much intelligent commentary on this forum.

I'm sure Ms. Wood is sincere in advocating pre-school. But the equating of "worthy causes" with rights-violating expansions of coercive government control is leading us piecemeal towards an omnipotent state. Package-dealing statists, particularly those on the Left, have been getting away with this tactic for far too long.

Blarneyboy, I'm more hopeful here ("Don't hold your breath"). There are already some good pre-schools out there, as well as many parents silently doing a good job at pre-K homeschooling. What people need to learn is to fight for their rights in this area, which means fighting for a free education market. The principle of individual rights is the crucial ingredient to stopping the pre-school market from being swallowed up by the bureaucratic establishment, thus destroying the existing network of private pre-schools. If I thought the task was hopeless, you wouldn't hear from me again. But fighting for individual rights is never hopeless.

Support for the idea of fighting against the public school monopoly and for parental control is coming from some surprising quarters. Check out Tom Moran's column of 10/13/07 (NJVoices, Vouchers are the obvious choice.). I'm against the government-financed voucher method, but he sees the same threat to private pre-schools as I do.

Though not a Christian, I'd still like to say Merry Christmas!


Others' Commentary:

Posted by plebeyo on 12/16/08 at 1:17PM

Different groups can be blamed for the failure of the educational system in some parts of the country. However, the biggest concern I have is that for decades now, this system has been turning out high school graduates with deficient math, science and language skills. Also, the drop out rates in urban America hovering at about 50 percent should be a alarming.

As far as NJ is concerned, some claim that the present situation is due to the NJEA's inflexible attitude regarding many issues. The blame can be passed around but the outcome of mediocre schools is a generation(s) of poorly educated minorities whose chances of reaching middle class have dwindled.

Whose responsibility is it to provide the citizen of a nation with a quality education? I guess the answer depends on whom you ask. Nevertheless, I feel it is a shame that in the richest country in the world, large segments of the population are receiving a poor education even by third world standards.


My Commentary:

Plebeyo, you are conflating multiple issues here.

The first question is, is the government's proper role to run the schools through the coercion of taxation and compulsory attendance laws, or is it to protect the rights of parents to fulfill their solemn responsibility to educate their own children according to their own values, judgements, and budgets? I believe the latter.

Second, the reference to "the richest country in the world" ignores the fact that the source of all wealth is produced by the efforts of individual people thinking and working productively. America is the "richest" country only figuratively. All wealth belongs to the individuals who make up a nation, who earned it each to the extent of his ability, ambition, and intelligence, essentially...and not to the nation as such; which is only a collection of individual human beings. The proper role of government is not to confiscate private wealth for any purpose it deems vital, but to protect its citizens' property right to their own earnings...on all levels of income.

This leads to the third issue, the most neglected one, the philosophy and method of education. This is the area to look to find the answer to American schools "turning out high school graduates with deficient math, science and language skills [and] the drop out rates in urban America hovering at about 50 percent". A government-run school system does not have to be as poor as ours. But money, I submit, is not the problem. The amount of money that our current system devours...reportedly $15-20,000 per student per year here in N.J., depending on the source (not including capital costs)...is the proof. A radical new philosophical approach that tosses out the mass production method of "education" in favor of a focus on students as individuals with interests, developmental timetables, and unique strengths and weaknesses is needed. Above all, learning to think...which means, the abstract conceptual level...must be prominent alongside knowledge acquisition. Getting good grades does not prove educational proficiency.

The public school system stifles innovation, as all coercive monopolies must. Ideas are germinated in individual minds, and only a free education market leaves educators and parents free to act on their ideas without begging permission from some board, politician, bureaucrat, or politically connected special interest group.

Commentary 6- Pre-school and Vouchers

From NJ Voices

Vouchers are the Obvious Choice
Posted by Tom Moran December 13, 2007 9:00PM
Categories: Family & Kids, Hot Topics
To the Rev. Reginald Jackson, head of the Black Ministers' Council, the remarkable success of the state's private preschools holds an obvious lesson.

We need more school choice. We need to break the monopoly of the public school system. We need to build on this success by at least experimenting with vouchers in the K-12 system.

"These preschools, 70 percent of which are privately owned, are providing a good foundation for these children," he says. "The only way we're going to know if it would make a difference in the later grades is by giving it a chance."


That, of course, is not going to happen in New Jersey. Because here, even talk of vouchers causes the teachers unions and the education establishment to break out in hives.

A voucher system would allow parents to pick whatever school they want, public or private. And these guys don't want anybody to mess with their cozy monopoly, which works so well for all the adults involved.

Already, some educators in the suburbs are taking up battle stations. As the governor moves to expand preschool offerings to their districts, they are promising to keep the private preschools out of the loop.

"We would prefer to do it ourselves," says Somerville Superintendent Carol Leary. "They will start out here as 3-year-olds and hopefully go right through high school."

It's a pity, because the preschool program today is probably the most remarkable success story of the last decade in this beleaguered state.

It relies on a healthy mix of public and private preschools that all receive public money -- even those that are religiously inspired. About 45,000 children attend the schools, most of them in the poor urban districts known as Abbotts.

The results are in. The first wave of these kids have reached grammar school, and are showing markedly higher scores on their reading and math tests. Fewer of them are landing in expensive special education programs. And teachers say these students tend to be better behaved.

How did this happen in a state that has taken such a hard line on school vouchers, and has only grudgingly allowed charter schools?

It was an accident. The Supreme Court in 1999 ordered the state to establish preschools in the Abbott districts, and the public schools didn't have the space or the teachers to do the job. They made room for private schools because the court put a gun to their head. Even the teachers unions went along.

"Initially I was dead-set against it, too," says Tom Dunn, the former superintendent in Elizabeth who now lobbies for school administrators. "But I was proven wrong."

As a convert, Dunn knows how public educators can turn this into a turf war, how someone like Leary could insist on banning private schools when she concedes she has no room in her own schools to do the job.

"There's a feeling that I'm going to be responsible for this, so I want control, and I don't want to be blamed for something that goes wrong," he says. "I can understand that initial reaction. But this works. And I plan to work with the superintendents to embrace this."

Maybe some districts will bite. Maybe they'll realize that the important point is whether the preschool is teaching children effectively, not whether it is public or private.

In the Abbott preschools, the state was perfectly impartial. It insisted on small class sizes, qualified teachers, and a proven curriculum. And it sent in teaching coaches, and enough money to make it work. That supervision is far more aggressive than is typical in pure voucher systems, so this is really a kind of hybrid.

But the preschools in these districts are both public and private. And because parents make the final choice about where to enroll their kids, the schools must compete for business.

So here we are. We have a success story, and the question is whether we have the wisdom to repeat it.

Meanwhile, Jackson says he will keep tilting at his windmill, pushing for a voucher system in the upper grades. He knows he won't get it anytime soon. But for him, this is at its core a human rights issue.

It is simply wrong, he says, to force poor children into public school monopolies when everyone knows many of these schools are failing, and even dangerous. He often asks a simple and telling question of those who disagree: "If you were in one of these urban districts, would you send your children there?"

Jackson is not quitting on the public schools. He sits on the board in Orange. And he is chairman of the board at Essex County Community College, where he says more than 80 percent of those graduating from the public schools need remedial classes.

"I've been in Jersey for 30 years and ever since I've been here they've talked about reforming the public schools, and they haven't," he says. "That is my major frustration."

And it will remain so, in all likelihood. Because New Jersey's political establishment is not about to yield on this one -- no matter what magic is being brewed in those Abbott preschools.


Commentary Begins

Inappropriate? Alert us. Post a commentPosted by philsgold on 12/14/07 at 12:02PM
The great defender of individual rights and capitalism, Ayn Rand, wrote that the best way to overcome the public school problem would be to institute a voucher system. In her essay she writes that very few people would want to buy a pair of shoes manufactured by the government; why then, would anyone buy something so crucially important as their children's education from the government!

How wonderfully ironic it was to read Tom Moran's advocacy of school vouchers. When an advocate of all things socialist, liberal, and statist has to admit the complete failure of his own creation, it is indeed a fun day for all us "enemies of the State". Now, all we need is for Tom and his liberal friends to admit that the government is a complete failure at everything except police protection, courts, and the military. So, instead of giving back our money through a voucher system, why not let us keep it in the first place. Oh my God, could we ever be trusted to dispose of the fruits of our own labor and thought?? Of course not!! We need the guidance of our great socialist leaders, like Hilary, Nancy, and the swimmer.

Inappropriate? Alert us. Post a commentPosted by hglindquist on 12/14/07 at 5:14PM
Well, philsgold ... maybe we the people would buy Ayn Rand's arguments if we had not experienced the guidance of great monopolist leaders up close and personal from time to time.

What is there about a banana republic that appeals to you? And do you use "Heckuva job, Brownie" government to prove your point?

Some stuff on Ayn Rand from wikipedia.com:

According to Rand, "For a woman qua woman, the essence of femininity is hero-worship - the desire to look up to man." (1968)

and:

In a Playboy magazine interview, Rand stated that women are not psychologically suited to be President ...

There's more, but why bother ... most of us know what she thought.

The fact that she was right on vouchers doesn't prove that everything else she uttered was also correct. Or that because she was wrong on so much, that vouchers are then also wrong.

Inappropriate? Alert us. Post a commentPosted by Zemack on 12/14/07 at 8:03PM
I heartily applaud your defense of the pre-school system against what can only be called a hostile takeover attempt by the state. Pre-school is the last bastion of what can be called true educational freedom in America, where parents are free to exercise their rights in deciding the course of their children's education by choosing from a free market array of competing schools.

I also applaud your identifying the true nature of the "public" (read government-run) school system as a monopoly. I would add coercive to that label. And, like all coercive (i.e., government-enforced) monopolies, our school system is beset by exploding costs and deteriorating quality.

I also emphatically endorse Mr. Jackson's idea of extending educational freedom to all grade levels, with two important changes;

1. I would replace vouchers with a direct tax credit to the parents for their education expenses. These credits would be applied both to local property taxes and income taxes. I would also encourage the creation of private scholarship funds by applying the same tax credits to voluntary contributions for scholarship purposes. The scholarships could be granted to parents whose educational expense may exceed any tax credits they may qualify for. The problem with vouchers is they violate the church-state separation, a crucial doctrine for preserving religious freedom in America.

2. Vouchers also leave too much control of the schools in the hands of the state (i.e., the education establishment), which leads me to my second important change. Government money always comes with strings attached, and the worst of the voucher strings is the mandate that schools must use a "proven" curriculum. This inevitably stifles new, entrepreneurial thinking. And we desperately need original, innovative, even radical new ideas in educational curriculum, methods, and philosophy.

Ultimately, I prefer that all schools be privately owned and run, i.e. a completely free market in education. But the dramatic reforms advocated by Mr. Jackson and yourself are a huge step toward better schooling in America.

Inappropriate? Alert us. Post a commentPosted by Zemack on 12/14/07 at 9:15PM
To Philsgold:

I, too, am an admirer of Ayn Rand for her moral defense of individualism and capitalism, among other things. But in the 40 years since I first discovered her writings, I don't ever remember her advocating vouchers. I do know that she advocated tax credits, with which I concur (see her essay on page 247 of the book "The Voice of Reason").

To Hglindquist:

If you really understood Ayn Rand and her philosophy, which requires a great deal of study, you may not agree with her but you wouldn't make the kind of ad hominem attacks you made in the first two comments in your post. Also, cherry-picking and presenting those two quotes out of context is rather unfair and very misleading of her character. Rarely has history produced a stronger or more courageous and independant woman.

Inappropriate? Alert us. Post a commentPosted by hglindquist on 12/15/07 at 8:47AM
My dear Zemack,

Most of us who disagree with Ayn Rand can actually use numbers to refer to her ideas, they are so well known. (Probably even those who agree with her can.) Plus that is why I referenced my source. People can read the whole wikipedia entry if they care to. It would be redundant for me to repeat here, wouldn't you say?

And I am glad you single me out for using "ad hominem" attacks ... which is a common retort of the uptight when they are being poked fun at. Jeez-lou-eeze, Zemack, this is the bloggosphere.

See, what most of learned in kindergarten is that if you don't have rules on the playground, bullies rule.

And what we are currently witnessing in the mortgage markets AND in the major league illegal use of drugs ... are clear examples of the so-called "free" market that does not pay for the damage it does out of the profits it earned ... to the point that even ye ol' Milton Friedman admitted before he passed on that there was no "free" market ... due to these very externalities, as these brilliant idiots call them. (Would you like the reference? Is "brilliant idiot" too "ad hominem" for you or does it actually catch the irony of intelligent individuals serving greed cloaked in principle?)

Inappropriate? Alert us. Post a commentPosted by hglindquist on 12/15/07 at 9:19AM
But returning to vouchers ... and being a member of the working class ... with bono fides extending from my parents and their parents to my children and their children ...

Most of us in the small towns and communities that spawned the public education system were part of mostly homogeneous communities ... at least I was in most of my years in public education. My family's values were the values taught in public school ... yes, religious, ethical, and social values were pretty much common ones ... at least publicly ... including prejudices (all one has to do is read the text books).

And I think the majority of folks still believe their particular public school is teaching the values they want taught. (Which is why they are against vouchers. They think they will be net resource losers for their schools.)

But it is appears to be equally obvious that a (growing?) number of families -- particularly the working poor in large urban centers -- are discovering that their children come back from public school in worse condition than when first enrolled ... with the strong arm of the state forcing them to keep sending their children to these schools even though the parents know it is harming their children's value system. They would like vouchers ... but they are a minority.

Am I right in thinking this way, or not?

Inappropriate? Alert us. Post a commentPosted by Zemack on 12/15/07 at 3:45PM
To Hglindquist;

Your schoolyard bully comment is, I guess, a reference to free markets. But what you actually, and unwittingly, describe is the exact system we have today in America...a mixed economy. A mixed economy is one in which the government acquires enormous powers over private economic activity which serves as a means or tool of anyone with political power or pull to impose its agenda on others by force. In other words, it empowers the bully.

True Capitalism, which doesn't exist anywhere today including in the United States, actually banishes force from human relationships by restricting the power of the state to the vital task of protecting individual rights (i.e., enforcing the "rules" as objectively defined by reference to those rights). This means, to protect the individual from the initiation of physical force, including governmental force. Thus no one, not even the rich, can impose his will on others by the acquisition of political influence and power because the tool of governmental coercion is removed. Capitalism, properly understood, means the separation of state and economics. All economic associations between people are voluntary, with each person acting in his own self-interest with the corresponding legal and moral obligation to respect the rights of all others to do the same. Free markets disarm the bully.

This relates to the school issue in this way. If a group of people, no matter how large their majority, want to pool their money to form a community school, it is their right to do so. But they have no right to use the taxing power of the state (or the municipality) to force everyone else in the community to pay for it ...i.e., to initiate the use of force against others for the purpose of forming a "public" school. Government under Capitalism protects the rights of the minority to chart its own course, including the smallest of all minorities, the individual. This is why Tom Moran's article was so exciting to read. However imperfectly and inconsistantly, he is taking a strong stand in favor of individual parents against the community's schoolyard bully, the entrenched educational establishment.


Inappropriate? Alert us. Post a commentPosted by hglindquist on 12/15/07 at 8:11PM
Zemack, one hardly knows where to begin because it is such a broad sweeping set of statements ... let's see if we can put some meat on the bones to chew on, shall we?

You write ...

Capitalism, properly understood, means the separation of state and economics. All economic associations between people are voluntary, with each person acting in his own self-interest with the corresponding legal and moral obligation to respect the rights of all others to do the same. Free markets disarm the bully.>/i>

What is your definition of a free market? And do you have an example, even in theory ... of one that claims to work? Like if it is free of regulation, then how does it disarm the bully? Put I don't yet know what you mean by a free market.

Then I would ask, what are these rights of all others that each of us is supposed to protect? Is this something like the old joke of the "right" of both the rich and the poor to be arrested for sleeping under the bridge?

Until we define individual rights that the state will have the vital task to enforce, we are sort of at a loss ... aren't we?

And if a person responds by saying our Constitution defines our rights then we run into a couple of major philosophical impediments to laissez faire ... like the last statement of Article I, Section 8: "To make all Laws which shall be necessary and proper for carrying into Execution the foregoing Powers, and all other Powers vested by this Constitution in the Government of the United States, or in any Department or Officer thereof."

Seems as if we have a representative form of government whose legislative branch is empowered to create all kinds of mischief regarding laissez faire ... like isn't it then the right of we the people to impose those regulations on ourselves that we deem suitable and are in accord with our Constitution? (Which always is a problem for the Libertarian when defending the Constitution ... or maybe you don't think it is?)

Another of those couple of major impediments to the honorable observance of rights that I mentioned above is how we have handled treaty rights with the indigenous populations ...

Then we have issues of ownership ... that stem in part from the treaty rights that I just mentioned ...

And that is a small scratching of the surface ...

I always get the feeling that when anyone calls for protecting the rights of the individual to chart his/her own course ... it is always from the current situation forward with a newly defined set of rights, never from a rational attempt to define what the situation should/would be if it had been fairly arrived at ... according to the rights we had in force before we decided to come up with a new set of rights. Maybe that's not that clear to you? Let me know. I can have another go at the wording.

Anyway ... to my way of thinking ... we should start by defining the individual rights that we are discussing ... and setting forth the historical record of their claim to current preeminence. Don't you think? I mean if we want to be clear and not simply mouth meaningless platitudes?

And from your opening statement regarding the separation of state and economics ... I would then ask whether you consider "economics" to be the primary concern of the state? And if all other functions of the state should be subordinate to its role vis-à-vis economics? And then do our shared values stem from the relationship of the state to economics? Is that Marxian? (You know that links up with some history behind the neocons ... or am I wrong in thinking that? I could look it up, if you think I am off base.)

Like I said, there is a lot to chew on in what you wrote ...

But wait ... one more thing ... you write ...

True Capitalism, which doesn't exist anywhere today including in the United States, actually banishes force from human relationships by restricting the power of the state to the vital task of protecting individual rights (i.e., enforcing the "rules" as objectively defined by reference to those rights).

Could you explain exactly how this thing called "True Capitalism" goes about banishing "force from human relationships by restricting the power of the state"?

Seems I remember something about the state (in the form of the NYPD) interfering with the car window washers at intersections in NYC as playing a role in cleaning up that city? Was that or wasn't it a good thing? How does that enter into this free market stuff, like for the boots on the ground? Or how do you keep kids from becoming garbage scavengers? Or do you? I mean, how does this theory apply to the real world? (Scrap aluminum and copper bring a good price ... at least according to The Wire.)

Then again ... maybe we can't have this True Capitalism, so we have to learn how to live with what we can have. What about that idea?

In that case, maybe this concept we have of balancing power to limit the abuse of power makes sense. What about THAT idea?

Inappropriate? Alert us. Post a commentPosted by Zemack on 12/16/07 at 6:41PM
To hglindquist

"Zemack, one hardly knows where to begin because it is such a broad sweeping set of statements"

Yes, I know. I was trying to define a broad set of principles in a brief statement and then relate them to the voucher issue. That usually raises more questions than it answers. You raise some good ones, and I will try to briefly answer a couple of them.

But first, I need to state that I am NOT a Libertarian. They are anti-government, I am not. They believe one has the right to "do as one pleases", on any whim or emotion, regardless of consequences to oneself or others, I do not. Neither am I a neo-con. I ascribe to Objectivism, Ayn Rand's philosophy of individualism.

"Until we define individual rights that the state will have the vital task to enforce, we are sort of at a loss ... aren't we?"

Yes, we are. Individual rights, properly understood, is a moral concept that defines a person's proper conduct in relation to others. A right is possessed by all individuals equally, but imposes no unchosen obligation on others. My reference to the school issue in my last post is one example. Similarly, a "squeegee man" has a right to offer his services to clean your windshield, but he has no right to do it against your will,while blocking traffic, then demand payment for an unwanted service and, when you refuse, to vandalize your property (which I witnessed happen to a friend). Individual rights are not an arbitrary creation of any state, legislature, king, society, democratic majority, or collective. They are natural requirements of man's, every individual man's, life and survival. This is implicit in the words "the right to life, liberty, and the pursuit of happiness."

"Could you explain exactly how this thing called 'True Capitalism" goes about banishing "force from human relationships by restricting the power of the state'?"


Essentially, a person's rights can only be violated by force, the threat of force, or fraud (the indirect use of force). Specifically, laissez-fare capitalism (which is what I mean by "true" capitalism) banishes the INITIATION of force. A person who assaults or robs another is initiating force, which is illegal in any society. Government, though, has a legal monopoly on the use of force. Under capitalism, the state is restricted from initiating force in the same way. Income "redistribution", which is legalized theft, would not exist under capitalism. Neither would the special-interest, pressure group warfare of our mixture of freedom and governmental coercion and controls (a mixed economy). One can gain the product of another person's labor only by trading his own work product in return through a voluntary exchange called trade. But when the government accrues the legal power to dispense economic favors and advantages on one group at the forced expense of another, it has aquired the authority to INITIATE force. Thus, whoever happens to gain control of the mechanism of government has acquired the legal authority to initiate the use of force, i.e,, to violate the rights of others. It is in this way that the "bully" (in this case, the educational establishment, including the teachers union through its political connections), can impose its economic agenda (universal taxpayer-funded preschool) on those who don't agree.

"Seems as if we have a representative form of government whose legislative branch is empowered to create all kinds of mischief regarding laissez faire ... like isn't it then the right of we the people to impose those regulations on ourselves that we deem suitable and are in accord with our Constitution?"

Our constitution is one of the greatest documents ever written, but it has flaws and loopholes (such as the commerce clause) that ultimately set us on a course toward statism, which is accelerating today. Our founding principles of individual self-determination and limited representative government were never intended, I believe, to endorse the collectivist premise implied in your reference to "the people". There is no such entity as the "people" except as a figure of speech. The "people" ( or society or the public, etc.) cannot be separated from the individual human beings who make it up. The "people" is not some entity separate from and superior to its individual members. When you speak of " the right of we the people to impose those regulations on ourselves", you are distorting the meaning of our founding principles by declaring that some people have the right to violate the rights of other people by imposing special restrictions (regulations) on their freedom of economic association and activity through the initiation of governmental force. Invoking the "will" of the people, the public, society, or any other kind of collective by politicians is a cover for their intent to violate someones rights.

"What is your definition of a free market? And do you have an example, even in theory ... of one that claims to work"

Again, the collectivist premise. A "free market" is not an entity and cannot claim anything. It is a social system based on the freedom of every individual to pursue his/her own welfare and happiness by his own effort through voluntary production and trade. While laissez-faire capitalism has never existed, the empirical evidence that it "works" is overwhelming. Countries that are predominately free economically have always had the highest standard of living. Look at the Western countries after the enlightenment, the difference between East and West Germany (before the fall of the Soviet Union), North and South Korea, Taiwan and (until recently) China. Look at the resource-poor Japan and Hong Kong, compared to the widespread poverty of the oil-rich Middle East. Look at the emerging middle classes of Asia and Eastern Europe after they adopted even limited free market reforms. Liberate the "common man" under even limited capitalism and the result will be rising general prosperity. In the same vein, liberate education in this country and you will see rising quality and falling costs.

"In that case, maybe this concept we have of balancing power to limit the abuse of power makes sense. What about THAT idea?"

It is my understanding that that principle relates to the sphere of government only...the balancing of the three branches of the federal government and of the power between the state and federal governments. But if you mean using political power to balance economic power, then this is obviously wrong. Political power is legalized force. Economic power is simply the power to produce wealth. No amount of economic power gives a person the authority to violate another's rights. It is only by the purchase of political influence and pull that any private group (economic or otherwise) can gain that sort of power (i.e., through the connection between state and economics).

Ayn Rand called Capitalism an "unknown ideal". And so it is. If you're interested in learning more about this "unknown ideal", hglindquist, you can go over to the capitalism.org website. I hope you don't think me too presumpuous in suggesting this.

Commentary 3

Teacher pay must be earned
Posted by Star-Ledger editorial board November 17, 2007 10:30PM

It would be foolhardy to entrust the education of children to schools that do not pay their teachers enough to hire and keep good ones.
So no one should mind that most New Jersey communities are now paying starting teachers $40,000 or more a year. The New Jersey Education Association once set $40,000 as a statewide goal. Some communities are already paying rookie teachers $50,000 or more, and that salary now is the NJEA's goal.
To think it was only 22 years ago that people railed against state legislation that required all districts to pay teachers at least $18,500.


Teaching is a very demanding profession, and $50,000 does not go very far in a high-cost state like New Jersey.
Of course, others making $50,000 do not have the schedule of summer vacations and free days that teachers enjoy, nor the protection of tenure in their careers.
Taxpayers who pay teachers' salaries, and the students whose futures very much depend on what happens in classrooms, have a right to demand good work for good pay.
But it also is foolhardy for the NJEA to pretend that its demands are all that matter in districts where property taxes, chiefly for education, are reaching maximum load. In many communities, the overall educational results remain marginal, and the per capita income of residents is not close to $50,000. It is similarly foolhardy to tolerate contracts that demand added pay for teachers to do anything new or extra.
The NJEA has set the bar high for salaries. The bar for performance must be high as well.
It is only when respect flows freely between teachers and those they serve that the payoff for both teaching and education is what it should be.

Comments

Posted by Zemack on 11/18/07 at 8:38PM
Only a free market in education can ensure that the best teachers receive the highest pay. An arbitrary set of standards created by some board or committee can never take into account such intangible teacher qualities as inspiring the student's interest, generating his (or her) understanding rather than merely cramming his head with facts, and training his mind on the tools of logic necessary to acquire and integrate knowledge on his own and to relate that knowledge to broader abstractions.

Only when the people who know their children best, the parents, are able to "vote with their feet (and their education dollars)" and enroll their children with the teachers and schools they judge best will we begin to see a resurgence in America's quality of education. The schools with the best teachers, educational philosophies and methods will succeed and proliferate, while the inferior schools will either change or fall by the wayside.

Original referenced link

Post Reference 1

Clinton's Hostile Preschool Takeover
By DARCY OLSEN AND BRUCE FULLER | Posted Friday, July 20, 2007 4:30 PM PT

Sen. Hillary Clinton ignited few fireworks, speaking before the nation's largest teachers union over the July 4 holiday. But one proposal is proving explosive: state-run preschool for all families.

Olsen is president of the Goldwater Institute, a think tank. Fuller, a Berkeley sociologist, is author of "Standardized Childhood" (Stanford University Press).

This op-ed ran in Investor's Business Daily. To view my commentary, click here.