Separating School and State: How to Liberate America's Families

The very title of this book shocks many. The concept of education being free of governmental influence--or more bluntly, the idea that public schools are a harmful farce that should be eliminated--goes against everything most of us have been told, have accepted, and have grown up with. Yet the case is made, and the evidence is overwhelming.The historical examination of education in this country is almost worth the purchase alone. What, we haven't always had public schools? What, people resisted public schools early on and had to have their children enrolled almost literally at gunpoint? This sets the stage for the examination of why we have public schools now, where the idea came from, how it works, what's wrong with it, and why it should be abolished. The points are ironclad; in fact, once you see how radically government involvement in the provision of education differs from that of other goods and services--such as health care, financial assistance, and even food--you'll begin to see how education in the U.S. has become the tangled, irrepairable mess that it now is.The thing which secures the fifth star for this book however, is its raising of another, almost revolutionary thought: that the current day model of education (teacher lecturing to seated students, grading papers, and so on) is part of the problem, and less than ideal. The concept actually fits hand-in-hand with his call for free-market education, as unfettered innovation in the educational field should naturally yield new and better methods of teaching children what they and their parents want to learn.Five stars for bold, clear presentation of a controversial viewpoint, fresh historical revelations, solid defense of the viewpoint (with rebuttals to key objections), and examination of the idea taken to its logical conclusions.

Most of the last three generations of Americans grew up attending public schools, therefore it is unsurprising that so few people question the premise behind it. After all, as Sheldon Richman poinst out in this highly charged book, why is it that we trust the free market to provide us with important things like food and clothing, while we think nothing of permitting education to be a government run enterprise? After reading Separating School & State, it will be hard to look at public education in America the same way ever again.Richman discusses the origins of public schooling in America, how educators like Horace Mann were influenced by the public schools in Prussia, apparently unaware that the schools there served the function of molding children to be dutiful servants of the state.My only fault with Separating School & State is that I would like to have seen more discussion about possible free market educational models, but that is probably a book to be written some other day.Richman's book should be read in tandem with Myron Lieberman's Public Education: An Autopsy. Whereas Richman arouses the passions of those like myself with his take no prisoners approach and his libertarian perspective, Lieberman's prose is much drier as he explains that the public school model is inherently faulty because it is a model that is more concerned with protecting the education providers than in serving the real needs of the education consumers.

Sheldon Richman presents us with a fascinating story here. Why were public schools first founded? Because people were illiterate? No. Records from colonial times show that literacy rates were higher than they are now in some places. There were all kinds of instructors, schools, schoolmasters, tutors, and self-taught leaders like Benjamin Franklin, and Alexander Hamilton, at the time of the American Revolution. There was tremendous resistance, well into the 20th century against government-owned, operated, and controlled "free schools." And no wonder. We now have an established school system that manifests all the problems the Founders saw inherent in an established church. The arguments the promoters gave are presented here, and some of then are pretty scary. The goals of the public school founders had more to do with the state's interests, than children's or family's interests. The idea was to indoctrinate children with the morality preferred by "politically correct" officials of the time. Compulsory laws came in when labor unions wanted to keep kids from competing for jobs. The opponents give their side here, too. Like a lot of people, I did not know much about the history of public schools before I started reading books like this one. I have come to agree with this author. This is an excellent argument for freedom of education, and giving control back to families and parents.

This is by far the best book on the subject. Richman brings forth the full weight of both history and libertarian theory to completely dismantle and ultimately destroy any justification for public education. Even if you already advocate the abolition of government systems of education, there is still much knowledge and insight to be gained from this book.

Separating School & State provides a clear, yet sobering analysis of the roots of the American public school system. Parents who wonder if they should home school their children would be well advised to read this, and then pass it around to anyone who questions their decision to home school.