Curtis Coleman: In the first of three Presidential debates, Gov. Mitt Romney expressed his clear support for a reform of education that would allow parents to once again direct the education of their own children, including a crucial commitment to a “money follows the student” system of education funding.
“The money follows the student” simply means that the money the state provides for the public school education of children in Arkansas will go to the school to which parents decide to send their children, regardless of which school that is.
Opponents of “the money follows the student” – usually teachers unions and some school administrators – say this funding plan will destroy public school education. It will, in fact, make public school education effective and productive – an opinion very few Arkansans have of public school education today. “The money follows the student” plan will move public education from a federal government monopoly to a free market economy. Only those schools that are successfully educating our children and preparing them for success in life will survive and grow. Failing schools will dramatically improve – or disappear – as they should.
A free market economy – and the competition it engenders – will always provide a superior product or service to any monopoly, [a monopoly] where excellence is not required for existence.
And when it comes to excellence and superior products and service, what could possibly be more important than the education of our children?
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Curtis Coleman is Chairman of The Institute for Constitutional Policy.
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