Patrick McSweeney



 

Preserving a Basic Freedom

Freedom of religion doesn't mean much if you can't educate your children in a manner consistent with your values. Virginians must preserve their private-school and home-school options.


 

Almost twenty years ago, an opponent of the Communist regime in Poland perceptively observed that the right to obtain information from the government was more valuable than the right of free speech. Without the ability to learn what government is up to, a citizen’s right to criticize is hollow.

Any abstract right can be rendered meaningless when citizens are denied the practical ability to exercise it. Americans have the constitutional right to exercise their religious beliefs, for example, but they are slowly losing the practical capacity to do so.

The growing role of government, its intrusion into areas of life once considered private, and the spate of judicial decisions that restrict expressions of religious belief in public schools and governmental facilities have had a profound, negative effect on religious liberty. When these developments are coupled with the impact of an American culture that is increasingly hostile to religion, the concern of many American parents over their ability to transmit their religious beliefs and traditions to their children is understandable.

Not all Americans are opposed to this erosion of family autonomy. Some actually favor government parenting and the weakening of parental authority. These people gravitate to social services agencies and public education to pursue their agenda.

Parents who are concerned about the situation in public schools where obscenities are tolerated but prayer is forbidden are left with two alternatives: They can home-school their children or enroll them in private schools.

It was only in 1984 that Virginia parents secured the right to home-school their children. Many who have chosen to do so can attest to the lingering hostility of some public education officials to home-schooling.

Parents choosing private education are penalized for doing so. They pay federal, state and local taxes that fund public schools, then pay tuition and other expenses related to private education. Much the same is true for parents who choose to home-school their children. As the tax bite grows, those parents have less and less money available for private education or home-schooling expenses.

This trend is portentous. We risk a future in which only the very wealthy can afford alternatives to public education. Without viable alternatives and competitive pressure, public education will become even less responsive.

The fundamental concern is not the condition of public schools, but rather the condition of our society, the measure of freedom we enjoy, and the health of the culture that sustains our way of life. Each is threatened by a constant increase in the burden of taxes.

Government does not yet have a complete monopoly in K-12 education. Heaven help us if it ever does. Imagine a future without an alternative to government schools.  Without competition, public schools would go the way of all monopolies, and a basic freedom will have been lost.

A legislative study group known as the Joint Subcommittee to Study and Revise the Tax Code will certainly have much influence on the direction Virginia takes on parental choice in education. If it proposes the elimination of all tax deductions and exemptions, it will nudge the Commonwealth toward a public school monopoly by denying already-strapped private schools relief from taxes, while precluding a tax credit program to encourage contributions to private schools or the voluntary payment of private school tuition.

The General Assembly should think very carefully about these consequences before revising the tax code.

-- Sept. 16, 2002

 

 

 

 

 

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