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2005 Ron Paul Chapter 9
Not linked on Ron Paul’s Congressional website.
Congressional Record [.PDF]
Family Education Freedom Act
26 January 2005
HON. RON PAUL
OF TEXAS
IN THE HOUSE OF REPRESENTATIVES
Wednesday, January 26, 2005
2005 Ron Paul 9:1
Mr. PAUL. Mr. Speaker, I rise today to introduce the Family Education Freedom Act, a bill
to empower millions of working and middle-
class Americans to choose a non-public education
for their children, as well as making it
easier for parents to actively participate in improving
public schools. The Family Education
Freedom Act accomplishes its goals by allowing
American parents a tax credit of up to
$3,000 for the expenses incurred in sending
their child to private, public, parochial, other
religious school, or for home schooling their
children.
2005 Ron Paul 9:2
The Family Education Freedom Act returns the fundamental principle of a truly free economy
to America’s education system: what the
great economist Ludwig von Mises called
“consumer sovereignty.” Consumer sovereignty
simply means consumers decide who
succeeds or fails in the market. Businesses
that best satisfy consumer demand will be the
most successful. Consumer sovereignty is the
means by which the free market maximizes
human happiness.
2005 Ron Paul 9:3
Currently, consumers are less than sovereign in the education “market.” Funding decisions
are increasingly controlled by the
federal
government. Because “he who pays the
piper calls the tune,” public, and even private
schools, are paying greater attention to the
dictates of federal “educrats” while ignoring
the wishes of the parents to an ever greater
degree. As such, the lack of consumer sovereignty
in education is destroying parental
control of education and replacing it with state
control. Loss of control is a key reason why so
many of America’s parents express dissatisfaction
with the educational system.
2005 Ron Paul 9:4
According to a June 2001 poll by McLaughlin and Associates, two-thirds of
Americans believe education tax credits would
have a positive effect on American education.
This poll also found strong support for education
tax credits among liberals, moderates,
conservatives, low-income individuals, and African-
Americans. This is just one of numerous
studies and public opinion polls showing that
Americans want Congress to get the federal
bureaucracy out of the schoolroom and give
parents more control over their children’s education.
2005 Ron Paul 9:5
Today, Congress can fulfill the wishes of the American people for greater control over their
children’s education by simply allowing parents
to keep more of their hard-earned money
to spend on education rather than force them
to send it to Washington to support education
programs reflective only of the values and priorities
of Congress and the federal bureaucracy.
2005 Ron Paul 9:6
The $3,000 tax credit will make a better education affordable for millions of parents.
Mr. Speaker, many parents who would
choose to send their children to private, religious,
or parochial schools are unable to afford
the tuition, in large part because of the
enormous tax burden imposed on the American
family by Washington.
2005 Ron Paul 9:7
The Family Education Freedom Act also benefits parents who choose to send their children
to public schools. Parents of children in
public schools may use this credit to help improve
their local schools by helping finance
the purchase of educational tools such as
computers or to ensure their local schools can
offer enriching extracurricular activities such
as music programs. Parents of public school
students may also wish to use the credit to
pay for special services, such as tutoring, for
their children.
2005 Ron Paul 9:8
Increasing parental control of education is superior to funneling more federal tax dollars,
followed by greater federal control, into the
schools. According to a Manhattan Institute
study of the effects of state policies promoting
parental control over education, a minimal increase
in parental control boosts students’ average
SAT verbal score by 21 points and students’
SAT math score by 22 points! The
Manhattan Institute study also found that increasing
parental control of education is the
best way to improve student performance on
the National Assessment of Education
Progress (NAEP) tests.
2005 Ron Paul 9:9
Clearly, enactment of the Family Education Freedom Act is the best thing this Congress
could do to improve public education. Furthermore,
a greater reliance on parental expenditures
rather than government tax dollars will
help make the public schools into true community
schools that reflect the wishes of parents
and the interests of the students.
2005 Ron Paul 9:10
The Family Education Freedom Act will also aid those parents who choose to educate their
children at home. Home schooling has become
an increasingly popular, and successful,
method of educating children. Home schooled
children out-perform their public school peers
by 30 to 37 percentile points across all subjects
on nationally standardized achievement
exams. Home schooling parents spend thousands
of dollars annually, in addition to the
wages forgone by the spouse who forgoes
outside employment, in order to educate their
children in the loving environment of the
home.
2005 Ron Paul 9:11
Ultimately, Mr. Speaker, this bill is about freedom. Parental control of child rearing, especially
education, is one of the bulwarks of
liberty. No nation can remain free when the
state has greater influence over the knowledge
and values transmitted to children than
the family.
2005 Ron Paul 9:12
By moving to restore the primacy of parents to education, the Family Education Freedom
Act will not only improve America’s education,
it will restore a parent’s right to choose how
best to educate one’s own child, a fundamental
freedom that has been eroded by the
increase in federal education expenditures and
the corresponding decrease in the ability of
parents to provide for their children’s education
out of their own pockets. I call on all my
colleagues to join me in allowing parents to
devote more of their resources to their children’s
education and less to feed the wasteful
Washington bureaucracy by supporting the
Family Education Freedom Act.
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