With his customary flair, Professor Rothbard delivers a succinct and persuasive case against state interference in formal education. While state-run education is seemingly more tightly woven into the American ethos than even our Constitution, Rothbard refuses to bend to popular pressures and does an admirable job of discarding each argument in favor of public schooling. Analytically, Rothbard treats the issue of education along the common lines of coercion versus voluntary consent. When the state decides to usurp children from their parents what consequences can we expect? And what is the motivation behind it?
Like any good social theorist, Rothbard begins with the individual and attempts to answer some fundamental questions concerning children and education. First, education is always a lifelong process. It starts at birth and continues through the whole of life. Learning and acquiring new skills develop naturally as a child matures and comes into contact with new people and new experiences. It is folly to regard "formal" education as the only kind. Second, the people best able to judge the abilities and needs of the child are his parents. It is individual, one-on-one instruction that is ideal since it can be fully tailored to meet the requirements of the child. Parents also have a natural affection and concern for their own children. No one would expect communal or public parenting to offer as much nurturance and support as traditional families, so why should public education be any different? Furthermore, Rothbard points out that human diversity (or inequality) is an essential feature of social life. Some kids are born dumb, others smart. Some might show remarkable aptitude in math, others in poetry or music. However, when you gather a great number of children together and expect them to master the same material with the same ability you are asking for trouble. The dullards will never be able to master even the most elementary subjects, so compulsory education forces them to waste their years in public facilities, while the brightest are never able to harness their full potential since the class must keep pace with the lowest denominator. It is a lose-lose situation.
Not content to just show the inadequacy of public schooling, Rothbard provides a scintillating narrative of how and why compulsory schooling has arisen. It made its first leap onto the stage with the rise of the Protestant Reformation -- Luther and Calvin were dogged statists who felt compulsory schooling was necessary to combat vice and sin. Not coincidentally, the growth of the Prussian state and compulsory schooling went hand in hand. A second, and far more relevant cause, was the spread of egalitarianism that came in the wake of the French Revolution, and made its presence felt in the writings of Robert Owen, a Utopian, who desired the absolute equalization of human life, and felt that compulsory education was the first important step. This spirit still animates the discourse to this day when modern "educationalists" claim "all children are equally educable" and differences in achievement reflect disparities in commitment and funding. This remarkably naive view of human nature does grave harm to all children and is exorbitantly wasteful. (Education is our most costly transfer payment).
Our relentless drive to improve education and "open the doors to all Americans" will only be met with excuses and failed promises. To take one example, look at the trend in many college campuses these days. Many required courses in humanities, literature, and the classics are being replaced by faddish preoccupations and base political agendas. Despite an alleged "blossoming" of diverse curricula in such things as "Chicano Studies", "Women's Studies", "Cultural Pluralism" and all the rest, these classes show an obscene and naked conformity. Does it surprise us that the common element running through all these "studies" is a visceral antagonism against free-markets and a virtual deification of state activity? Compulsory schooling has made the state the most popular institution in society and our students some of the dumbest. Rothbard shows how all this is not mere happenstance and that if we ever wish to improve education it must begin with an aggressive campaign against state managed schools.
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