“Train up a child in the way he should go: and when he is old, he will not depart from it.”

– Proverbs 22:6

I have been reading about all the problems facing the Morgan Hill Unified School District (MHUSD). On one hand we have a nationwide union making demands upon our local school district. On another, we have the trustees (school board) drawing up “education goals for 2006-07” that illustrate bureaucracy more than “training up … ”

Who is in charge here?

Some years back, during a school board candidates meeting, someone asked the question, “Who is in charge of our schools.” One of the incumbent candidates put it out on the table. “The voters in MHUSD elect us to the board. Then we spend our terms executing the directives of the federal, state and county education departments.”

No amount of goal setting, no amount of increased funding, no amount of union negotiation, no amount, even of parent participation is going to halt and reverse the decline of what was once world-class public education.

Look at the vested interests of the parties involved. Parents have a vital interest in training up their kids. Those kids will be the ones deciding which “retirement homes” they’ll be living in!

Teacher and employee unions have an interest in their percentage of the salaries paid. These funds are used to influence legislation (read: “contributions to politicians”) that put more good money into failed programs.

Education bureaucracies have an interest in ever greater funding “for the children.” Funding that flows to a system that is ridiculously top heavy.

“Education” has become, in many ways, a “cash cow” rather than a tool to “train up a child.” Let’s look a bit deeper.

I submit that the root purpose of education is to train the character of the student. Knowledge without character will produce a monster that will turn on you. Parents bring a child into the world. They are ultimately responsible for the impact that child has on the world. They may “farm out” some of the tasks, but the ultimate responsibility rests upon them.

Parents want to pass along the best set of principles they have found, by which to make good choices. Anything else would be insanity.

If they turn over education to the church, the students will be trained to serve the principles espoused by that organization.

If they turn over education to the state, the students will be trained to serve the interests of those in charge of civil government.

Our public school system has degenerated into a network of politically correct research clinics using students as lab rats.

The principle being violated here is “local authority.” The most local authority is the parent. I propose the ideal solution is home-school, followed by coop schooling (parents pooling their skills and children).

If we must have public schools, I propose local neighborhood schools, administered by locally elected school boards answerable ONLY to neighborhood voters. The moment we accept a “unified” school district, it is only a matter of time until there is a secretary of education in the president’s cabinet and a set of education departments at every level below that!

Suppose Morgan Hill had individual school districts drawn around each school, each with its own board answerable only to voters in that district. If one school turned out markedly poorer students than another, voters would ask the board for answers. Individual school administrators would be responsible.

If the board and administrators chose not to deal with the problem, parents have the option to “vote with their feet” and move to a better district, else vote out the unresponsive board.

Once you accept a “unified” district, you have to move out of town, and your little group of disgruntled parents have much less voice in the larger voting district. When a mediocre standard is imposed by county and state education departments you have to move out of the state to get into better conditions!

When the flag and the pledge are taken out of most classrooms along with inspiring American history, is it any wonder patriotism is being replaced by “global” allegiance?

When sound reason is replaced with politically correct slogans is it any wonder why we have a generation weak on critical reasoning skills?

When God, prayer and respect for biblical authority are removed from our classrooms, is it any wonder we have a generation of kids having a hard time discerning right from wrong?

There is another interesting Bible verse, “Fear (reverence) of the Lord is the beginning of wisdom.” It follows that an irreverent teacher is incapable of producing a wise student. Today, hundreds of thousands of American home-schoolers are studying at the knees of reverent teachers.

From whence do you suppose America will find its wise leaders in the next generation!

Ben Gilmore is a Morgan Hill businessman. He’s a member of the Board of Contributors, which is comprised of local writers whose views appear in the newspaper on Tuesdays and Fridays.

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