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A
Modest Proposal
To
Improve Education and Reduce Property Taxes
By
Privatizing the Public Schools

It is now almost universally accepted by concerned Americans that our

public schools are failing to produce a literate, well-educated younger
generation.
Despite the fact that the American taxpayer spends more money on
education than any other nation in history, we are getting less and less
quality education for our money.
In April 1983, the National Commission on Excellence in Education
reported:
“The educational foundations of our society are presently being eroded
by a rising tide of mediocrity that threatens our very future as a nation
and as a people….If an unfriendly foreign power had attempted to
impose on America the mediocre educational performance that exists
today, we might well have viewed it as an act of war. As it stands we
have allowed this happen to ourselves.”
In other words, our educators have produced a mediocre education for
our children. But they are the last to admit their responsibility.
And, of course, we all know about America’s reading problem, which the
public first became aware of in 1955 when Rudolf Flesch wrote his
famous book Why Johnny Can’t Read. In it, Flesch wrote:
“The teaching reading--all over the United States, in all of the schools, in
all the textbooks--is totally wrong and flies in the face of all logic and
common sense….Today the phonetic system of teaching reading is kept
out of our schools as effectively as if we had a dictatorship with an all-
powerful Ministry of Education.”
Has anything changed since 1955 in the public schools?
In November 2007, the National Endowment for the Arts issued an
alarming report on America’s decline in literacy, Reading at Risk. It
reported that the number of 17-year-olds who never read for pleasure
increased from 9 percent in 1984 to 19 percent in 2004. Almost half of
Americans between the ages of 18 and 24 never read books for
pleasure. The Endowment chairman, Dana Gioia stated: “This is a
massive social problem. We are losing the majority of the new
generation. They will not achieve anything close to their potential
because of poor reading.”
Indeed, from Why Johnny Can’t Read in 1955 to the Commission’s
devastating report in 1983 to the Endowment’s alarming report in 2007,
the quality of education in our public schools has continued to decline.

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And there is no indication that the public schools know how to improve it,
despite the more money they are able to extort from the taxpayer.
It is now quite obvious that the great experiment in free government-
owned and controlled public education as a means of uplifting our nation
and providing future generations with excellent academic skills has been
a failure.
But there is a very viable way out from this dismal failure:
The privatization of the public schools in every
town in America.
Private education is not new in America. In fact, it is a tradition that goes
back to our very beginnings as a nation. Our founding fathers were well
educated by every sort of private means available at the time. And the
result was that early Americans were the most literate people on earth.
The key to that high literacy was the need to be able to reading the Bible.
The U.S. Constitution makes no mention of education because it was
considered a private affair, conducted by private schools and tutors,
religious denominations and parents. And today we still have private
schools for those who want quality education and are willing to pay for it.
We have well-known private parochial schools. And now we have the
growing phenomenon of home-schooling. And so we know how to
achieve quality education. It’s no mystery.
In other words, every town in America with a public school system can
change failure into success by simply privatizing these local institutions.
By getting the government out of the education business, we shall be
getting rid of the dictatorship of that Ministry of Education which Dr.
Flesch wrote about.
In addition privatization will have enormous benefits for the community,
its parents, its children, and its home-owners.
If you still believe that we live in a free country, then the privatization of
the public schools should not only be possible but desirable.
Each public school can be converted into a private institution by the local
town government.
Each school can become a private tax-exempt foundation governed by a
board of trustees chosen by whatever means the town decides will
produce the best results.
Each new private institution will be supported by tuition fees from parents
whose children will attend the school. The tuition fees for students whose
parents are too poor to pay the fee can be paid by a Town Foundation
set up to take care of the poor who cannot pay tuition.
In other words, every child in the community will get a good private
education, regardless of whether or not their parents can afford it.
The newly privatized schools will be able to raise additional funds by
conducting fund-raising activities, such as sports events, dramatic
performances, crafts, bake sales, alumni societies, etc. Donations will be
tax-deductible.
Thus, a great tax burden will be lifted off the shoulders of the home-

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owner who must pay high real-estate taxes to finance the public schools.
But when those schools are privatized, there will be no need for home-
owners to carry the entire financial burden for the schools. That will
certainly enhance property values in the community.
Privatization with restore control of the schools to the local communities
so that they can adopt curriculums that work. All they have to do is
examine the curriculums of successful private schools to find out what
works best.
Privatization will lower the cost of education and improve its quality. No
need for top-heavy administration personnel associated with government
regulations.
Teachers will be hired as any private institution hires its personnel, on the
basis of their qualifications.
The highly politicized teachers’ unions, such as the National Education
Association, with their World Government, multicultural curriculum, will no
longer be able to control the local schools.
Each privatized school can vie to become the best school in town.
That’s a great incentive to excel.
From a national point of view, by privatizing the public schools, America
will embark on a new, exciting era of educational creativity and
entrepreneurship, using all of the advanced technologies being
developed by our high-tech economy.

Committee for the Privatization of Public Schools.

Samuel Blumenfeld, Consultant

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