Families need better choices and more affordable options for educating their children – Improving education choices should be the goal of our education policy
By Todd Courser

There is a wide variety of both excelling and failing private / public schools.  The decision of where to educate children should be made by parents, not by a state system that forces some children into underperforming schools. Let parents decide which education option is the best fit to educate our most precious resources and allow great teachers to teach without unreasonable government and contract restrictions. My own Republican Party has been absent in the fight to bring freedom to education for our families.  The Democrat Party has refused to even consider the parents right to choose the type of education their children need.  All forms of education need to be improved and affordable access granted to parents to make their own education choices.  The parents have the most vested interests in seeing their children succeed and they are in the best position to decide how their children should be educated.  The government and union leaders have, for far too long, overridden the freedom and liberty of parents to be the decision makers of their children’s education.

We have some  schools in which  education is sometimes the last thing occurring. We have  some wonderful teachers trying to teach in systems that require  burdensome  administrative time and leave minimal educational time.  We see students acting out in ways that tell us that cultures of immorality are allowed to exist and the schools offer  little to no training in the area of civility, respect, and honor.  In short, our schools have walked far from the one-room school house and much of that walk has not been beneficial to our  students’ educations or their health.  I had one young lady, whom I have known for a very long time, tell me 6 months ago that if she had a child she would not let them go to her high school or any other! She said, “Todd, you would not believe the stuff happening in the school, away from the teachers, during the day!” One act here or there should be enough to alert parents to the fact that there is something desperately wrong in the way we are trying to educate our children. Now more than ever we need to give parents the choice of how to best educate their children.

I believe the best way to improve education is to place the parent in charge of choosing the type of learning environment that is best for their child.  We have allowed for far too long the state to decide what form of education our children will receive. As a result, we now have children who don’t have basic life skills and who are terribly unprepared to meet the needs of employers.  Many cannot read nor do basic math.  Often the schools are being run by administrators and teachers who have their hands tied by bureaucrats with work rules and contracts that do not advance the objective of educating our children. Education, for many, is a career path and a business rather than a passion for advancing education.

As a state, we are losing over 50% of our college graduates to other states once they graduate. At graduation, the state has invested thousands of dollars into a child through education only to see them pull away in a U-haul van bound for some employment climate that is better suited to prosperity.  We are one of the worst states at getting dollars through the school administration maze and into the hands of the teachers needing the resources.  We have restricted our parents to the choice of a failing public school or paying out of pocket for smaller classes and more individualized attention in a private school.

School choice options should be expanded to allow families to send their children to a school of their choice. These options should include more charter schools and vouchers for children in private, Evangelical, Catholic, and home schools. The government and those being paid handsomely to keep kids in failing schools are not in favor of giving families the voucher option, believing that the government is the best decider of what our children’s education should look like. We’ve seen the results of the government’s vision and it is sorely lacking.

My own story is one of difficulty in learning to read and being labeled “a slow learner.” Through a wonderful teacher, Mrs. Mawer, and my mother, I eventually came up to speed and went on to enjoy reading, at times a hundred pages a day for enjoyment.  I believe many times children (boys in particular) are labeled early to allow administrators to be “off the hook” for the child falling away from education norms.  Such labels also bring additional funds and resources to the classroom. My interests during elementary school were focused on money, historical battles, and government- certainly not the standard curriculum that was proscribed by state standards.

I never did master the traditional classroom of a public school and hated the continuous memorization of test questions that filled the days. This was not learning.  Outside of class, my high school years were filled with books on stock trading, options, commodities, political history, and agriculture.  I was not a typical student and was constantly bored with the curriculum.  There were many teachers who were a testimony to good teaching and some were absolutely wonderful influences in my life- Mrs. Warner, Mr. Waun, Mr. Snyder, Mr. Supernault, Mr. Bracy, Mr. White, Mr. Gormley, and Mrs. Carter all come to mind.  I understand that my style of learning was not one the schools were able to deal with without pushing me into a curriculum that would not have given me many options after high school.  Thanks to my parents resisting the labels, the extra efforts of the teachers mentioned, and my own efforts outside of school, I found another way to learn. Now, with successful completion of college and law school behind me, many years running a business, and after having four children of my own, I am convinced that parents need more options- especially those who do not have the parental and teacher support that I had.

Unfortunately, not much has changed since my personal experience with public school. Many children continue to be labeled and then placed into classrooms that do not address their particular learning issues or styles (there is even now incentive to label children with a learning disorder to gain a higher amount of funding). There are plenty of terrific teachers and they do their best to address all of the varying needs of their individual students. However, why would we not want to relieve the pressure of meeting unusual learning styles from public school teachers if possible? Why would we not want to allow parents access to the best learning environment for their children?  Why not make more options such as vouchers available to parents who feel their child’s needs will be better served in a different environment? Currently that luxury is available only to those parents with significant financial resources. Educational options should not be available only to the wealthy!

My mother and sisters have been teachers in both the public schools and in evangelical schools. All of my siblings and my wife and I are now homeschooling.  My own family is homeschooling two children and two are attending St Paul’s Lutheran School.  All options were on the table when we made these choices but we felt that the individual children were best served this way. We have one that desperately needed more freedom to explore his interests (like his dad) and he is being homeschooled along with our preschooler.  We have two who are at St Paul’s where they are thriving; my kindergartener can read and do some multiplication).  I give my own story to illustrate there is no one size that fits all and parents should be making the choice of what education  is best for their own children, not school administrators or the government.  But not all parents can afford the options that we have chosen; I have been blessed with the resources to have these options for my children. Vouchers or tax credits would provide access to options for many parents of children that desperately need alternatives.
I wholly support the liberalization of schooling options for parents and will be an advocate for improving all types of education for our children. Those who say they are champions of individual liberty and freedom need to stand up and fight for parents rights to raise their own children and have control of how their children are educated.  Our children need our support and parents are in the best position to make the right educational choices for their children.

Todd A Courser
Candidate for State Senate 2010

Today, we in Michigan find ourselves again in a budget crisis.  Yes, this is after being in session (less than half the days a normal full time person is at work), with a summer break and all the rest of the tough scheduling our legislators endure (what is it 8-10 days a month?). We find we are in a budget crisis again.  It appears, to no one’s surprise, that the last and most difficult special interest to satisfy is the Michigan Education Association (teachers union).  Both parties are sold out to keeping the status as is for the MEA’s leadership (regardless of the affects on our children’s futures).  We have Republicans and Democrats living in fear of the MEA and its leadership.  We commit far more than most states to education per child and we consistently underperform.  I don’t think this is due to a lack of talent from our teachers, on the contrary, I know we have some very talented people (I myself am a product of the public school). We have a system where people are, for the most part forced to participate due to lack of affordable alternatives and overtaxing away of resources to give their children a better chance.  I have a mother and two sisters who have taught in the public schools.  Both of my sisters (and we ourselves home school) are now homeschooling. We have two of our children that we home school and two are at St Paul’s Lutheran School.  I believe underperformance by our public schools is due to the incredible lack of understanding/denial of how to make education better.  The teachers union (MEA) and those who are charged with making policy fail to acknowledge that the best way to create a better and cheaper system is to allow choice to the families for their children’s education (much like fixing healthcare-more free market choices).  Wherever vouchers are tried they thrive (look at Washington DC which had thousands on a waiting list to get their children a better shot at a future). Vouchers should be embraced full force in Michigan.  We need to stop teaching about things like homosexual lifestyle choices in school and focus on teaching children to read / do math with our tax dollars. Money on alternative lifestyles and pornographic sex education has no business in our schools and should not be funded by our limited state resources.  The best move to fix the education system in our state (and greatly help the budget) is to give a voucher to children to attend any public school and transfer without limitation.  We should also create a private voucher system for both homeschoolers and private schools.  This voucher should be a partial amount of total that is set aside for the child thru the state.  If we give 3k in a voucher there will be 3-7k left from that child leaving the system and this leaves 3-7k that can be used on the children who remain in public schools.  I know this is going to create a backlash on me from some teachers union members. Most teachers and parents get this simple concept already and see why we need to change.  There are those who deny the facts of our failed schools and are not willing to put the interests of educating our kids first by allowing parents to make the choice. Vouchers and competition are the best way to close the gap for giving our kids the best education money can buy. Offering vouchers will help the public schools fund the remaining children’s educations, not harm it. Let’s get over Democrat versus Republican and do what’s right for our children.

Homeschooling has been under attack for many years and is now in the midst of a battle for liberty and freedom of families to choose the way they will raise their own children. I am committed to this fight and will stand with homeschoolers to preserve liberty and freedom. Please click on endorsements to see our letter from Chris Klicka.

There needs to be freedom in education. Whenever choices are given and competition exixts, the product gets better. There needs to be freedom to choose the type of education that you want for your children. We need to expand the charter school possibilities and allow families to choose home schooling, parochial or private schools. Not all families are served well by the public school system. We need to increase the choices to get better results.