Re: letter to the editor

[". Throne" <thronefarm@hotmail.com>]

It’s been over a year since I waved goodbye to the U of I, but I see that 
"Moscow: A Case Study in Culture Wars" has yet to see a final chapter.

The education quandary is probably more accentuated in Moscow because the 
private schooling available is of such high caliber, but the exodus from 
"state-sponsored schools" [is this more palatable than "government 
schools"?] is a nation-wide phenomenon.  I see the same things happening in 
my Southern Oregon hometown of Klamath Falls, where two new Christian 
schools, grades K-12, have sprouted up within the last decade--another 500+ 
students out of the public school system, not counting the homeschoolers.

But as more parents cast a vote of no-confidence with their feet, and either 
pay the extra amount for private school, or the extra time and effort in the 
noble task of homeschooling (which is becoming fashionable, by the way), it 
is only natural that these same parents--generous though they may be--will 
be less and less likely to rally 'round the "glorious cause of public 
education," or whatever sloganeering is used to promote, for example, a 
supplemental levy.  There is a certain threshold at which the "public 
schools" will no longer numerically represent the true voting public.  At 
that point, which is closer to fruition in Moscow than it is here, things 
will really begin to unravel.  This, I believe, is the source of Visionary 
anxiety, just as it is the unofficial justification for the illiberal 
proposals from official education associations to register/certify and 
standardize homeschoolers.  When I was in Moscow during the 2000 elections, 
I believe that I remember former Rep. Ringo going on record in support of 
some kind of registration.

So [I have to pick on somebody] when Bill London writes that creating an 
alternative education system is "perfectly legal and certainly OK" with him, 
I hope that is a firm commitment.  As long as a free people are free to 
choose how to educate their children, and as long as that same people are 
self-governing, the current public school system will not last another 
generation.  The reflexive temptation to stifle competition will only 
increase.  Any soul searching that is due is on the part of supporters of 
the current system.

I keep an occasional eye on the wonderful city of Moscow because it just 
happens to be a "test center" for what the future holds.

- Justin

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