Recently the Henry County School Board voted
to make some drastic changes to the local public
education system including consolidating the four
high schools into two. Under the plan chosen,
Fieldale-Collinsville High School and Laurel Park
High School will both be changed over to middle
schools and the students of each will attend
Bassett High School and Magna Vista High School,
respectively. These changes will also include the
closings of three elementary schools in the area.
While it is understood that changes need to be
made due to budget cuts and changes in
population, many in the area feel the decision of
the school board was made too drastically and
that not all solutions, including possibly better
ones, were not discussed. The purpose of this
section is to allow an exploration of the issue
as well as to discuss some libertarian ideas on
education.
The Libertarian Party
On Education
The Libertarian Party holds to the position
that education is best when in the hands of the
private sector instead of the public one, which
is a general libertarian perspective on many
issues. There are many reasons for this position
including the fact that private schools are often
better because they have to live up to a higher
standard due to competition with other schools.
One problem that could be pointed to with regard
to our public schools is that they do not have to
compete with other schools and therefore they
often do not live up to the higher standards they
would if they were in private hands. The idea
that competition makes for better service is true
for almost all aspects of economics and the same
holds true for education. Because of this
perspective, along with others, the Libertarian
Party supports what has been termed
"Separation of School and State." To
learn more about the Libertarian Party's
positions on education please follow this link, The
Libertarian Party On Education.
In the recent debacle over what the school
board should be doing with the schools in Henry
County, the Laurel Park High School Boosters Club
mentioned a great deal of money that they might
be willing to use to keep the school open.
Of course the school board did not allow for any
consideration of using donations from the
Boosters Club or any other private organization,
like all government agencies they acted as if
only public funds exist for the purposes of
bettering our community. From a libertarian
perspective, not allowing private funds to go
into our schools is not in the best interest of
education as the libertarian perspective would be
to work toward ways that allow for the
privatization of education. This idea of
privatizing areas of public education isn't as
far fetched as it sounds and there are areas in
the country that are working to bring in private
contractors to maintain their public schools. To
learn more about what is being done with regard
to privatizing public education follow this link,
Edison
Schools.
In short, the Libertarian Party supports an
education system where schools cater to the needs
of the students and community and not the other
way around. It is believed that the best way to
see this happen is to have our schools work in a
market where competition could guide our
childrens' education to success.
Henry County's Plans
for Consolidation
There are many issues that could be discussed
with regard to the plans for combining our four
high schools into two. The libertarian position
on education is provided above and we do believe
that ideas for privatizing school functions could
help the matter greatly. However, the issues
surrounding combining our schools are more varied
than just privatization. Many have argued that
the school board, as a body of government, has
not considered all solutions and has settled on a
plan too quickly without taking into
consideration the desires of the people. The
overall concensus of the people is that our
schools should be responsive to the communities
they serve and not the other way around. The
libertarian response to that would be in
agreement as libertarians support ideas that
separate our schools from the common bad
management in government that often does not
change in accordance to the will of the people.
To allow a place where the issues may be
discussed, the following poll has been set up for
your input. Feel free to add your comments and
vote on the actions of the school board.
If you are against the
actions of the school board and would like to
participate in working toward better solutions,
email Sue Harris DeBauche at VaReform@kimbanet.com. You can also check out the web
site for Citizens for Responsive
Government, the
local group set up since the fight for our
schools began.
You can learn more about
where the party stands on the issues at our
national headquarters web site, www.lp.org
, or the state website LPVA.com
.
