Yesterday approximately 20% (3,188) of Keene’s registered voters turned out to decide on a 33% more expensive Teachers’ Contract than the one that was voted down back in March. 62.5% (1,995) voted to approve the Teachers Contract. That’s a total of 12.4% of Keene’s registered voters who’ve decided that you’re going to be paying more in property taxes (or more in rent, if you don’t own).
How could you be against this? Do you hate teachers? Do you hate public schools?
Of course I don’t hate teachers. Education is very important. That is precisely why it needs to be taken out of the hands of government. Eating is important too. Would you want the government deciding what you can eat? Would you want government bureaucrats distributing food? If not, why would you want bureaucrats deciding what your kids should learn?
Worse still, government schools have no incentive to innovate or compete as it doesn’t matter to them how satisfied you are with their performance. They are going to get funded next year regardless of how well they are satisfying their “customers”. Not only that, you’re being forced to pay for it all – whether you like it or not. In fact, you are forced to pay even if your kids don’t go to government schools or if you don’t have kids at all!
The funding method is really the crux of the issue. Government schools are funded through taxes (coercion) while private schools and homeschoolers do not force you to do business with them. They operate on a voluntary basis, the way most people do. The only people that don’t offer products and services on a voluntary basis are gangsters, criminals, and government. Or, do I repeat myself?
Seriously though, most people in government don’t actually realize that the agency they’re working for is funded via threats of violence. Most of them are just looking for a job with nice benefits, or in the case of teachers to educate young people. Public school teachers should still be able to teach. All we need to change to make things right is to get the government out of public schools. Public schools should be offered as a service in the marketplace and funded voluntarily as all other business transactions are.
Now the question becomes, how do we get from here to there? I’m certainly open to ideas but one that I like is to simply hand over ownership of each government school to the teachers, retirees, administrators, cafeteria, and janitorial staff. Each individual will receive an equal share of ownership in the school, that way the administrators will have no more control than anyone else. Many teachers have always felt hamstrung by the administrators and the bureaucracy. For the first time ever, they will experience true educational freedom. So, you give out the shares and then inform them that they have only a year remaining of government funding. This way, they are given a fair amount of time to figure out how to fund themselves voluntarily.
After that year is up the public schools will finally be funded on a voluntary basis and your property taxes can be cut by approximately 60%! Property taxes going down will inevitably lead to lower rents in the city of Keene as well!
But what about the poor?!?!
A valid concern. As I said, rents will drop after property taxes drop. I own a duplex here in Keene and if my property taxes dropped 60% I could reduce the rent by $250 a month. That would save my tenants $3,000 a year. Remember also that since the public schools will now be funded voluntarily they will be competing on the same level as other marketplace schools. Unlike the backwards world of government where budgets go up year after year, the competition in the market leads to lower prices and better service! For anyone that still can’t afford to send their kids to school there will be low-cost schools, scholarships, and even free schools perhaps run by charities or churches.
Your ideas may be good, but the system is too entrenched. We’ll never be able to change it. You can’t fight City Hall, or in this case the Teachers Union.
The system is indeed entrenched. As an example of what we’re up against, did you know that the school board voted to use your taxpayer dollars to fund an advertising campaign to push this new Teachers Contract? Isn’t that amazing? They are using your money to try to convince you to vote them more of your money!
They may have the money and the slick advertising campaigns, but we have the good ideas and the truth on our side. All we need to do is elect people who will actually reduce the size of government instead of continuing to grow it.
While over 90% of Keene adults are registered to vote, only a small fraction ever bothers to do so during Municipal elections. This means that if only a couple thousand freedom lovers turned out to vote for small government candidates, we would win! Here at FreeKeene.com we’ve begun the process of vetting candidates for City Council and Mayor. We will find out who the small government candidates are and we will clue you in. We have already found one, so keep checking back at http://vote.freekeene.com for more!
It is not too late to turn this around and get our freedom back. Want to help? Visit our Calendar to see what’s coming up and come out and meet us! Or, become a FreeKeene Contributor for as little as $3 a month. Unlike the government, we won’t threaten to take your house away from you if you don’t pay. We do things voluntarily here at FreeKeene.com!
