Issue Position: Education

Issue Position

Issue Position: Education

* Provide every child with the opportunity to receive a quality education.

* Improve our schools by encouraging competition.

* Institute a voucher system so that a lack of financial means never precludes a child from a quality education.

Educating our children is one of the most critical functions of government. But the federal government's function is not to actually do the educating. Its function is to enable and encourage individuals and local governments to set up programs to give our children a top-notch education. In many places, we are succeeding, giving our children a marvelous education. Our Colleges and Universities are the best in the world. We can be proud of this.

Though many of our schools are top-notch, we need to provide a thorough education for every person in America, not just those who can afford it or who happen to live in a strong school district. Parents should be given the choice of where to send their children. It is my firm belief that parents, not government bureaucrats, know where their children should be educated. Only by letting parents decide whether or not a school is performing will we weed out the bad schools and allow the good schools to grow.

We can accomplish this by simply giving every parent a voucher for a certain number of dollars that can be given to an accredited school by the parent to pay for the cost of education. This gives full control of where a child goes to school to the parent and child. They do not need a bureaucrat to tell them where to send their child. They are not forced to send their child to a failing school. They are not forced to send their child to a school that has an educational philosophy that disagrees with the parent's values.

Source