Exchange with Rep. Brad Avakian

Listen to the audio here. Exchange Starts at 1:15:00

Rep. Brad Avakian:

Whether you’re in a public school or whether you are in a vouchered school, chartered school, some other private model, that your choice is equal. If you don’t like what’s happening at the school you have the choice to go somewhere else. The biggest difference is that with regard to a public school, there is a statutory and constitutional process that guarantees a parents right to be heard. You have free speech rights because the Constitution applies to public entities. That does not apply to private entities in which a board, or whatever manages the school, is the one that outlines the process.

Now with regard to competition and this is where if you’d like to comment I’d certainly love to have your comments on the record. This notion of competition is an interesting thing with regard to public education because it has the appearance on the surface of fitting very well because in the free enterprise market competition drives the economy very very well. But it’s a double edged sword because competition also created things like exploding Ford Pinto and flammable children’s pajamas. Because you don’t always get greater quality with competition. Sometimes you get lesser quality as the business tries to create a profit.

Now with regard to public schools, it seems to be there should be a system somewhere in society that guarantees that every single school provides an excellent education for children so that some third grader is never left with a competitive model that gives the potential of landing on the losing end of that competitive model. So what I’m curious about even though you’ve very artfully described your perception of your education model what do you think government’s role is? Isn’t the government’s role suppose to be to guarantee an equal excellent education for every child?


Matt Wingard:

Rep. Avakian I would agree with you whole heartedly. That absolutely is government’s role and I guess my question would be, “is that what the government is doing right now?”


Rep. Avakian:

And expand on your thoughts now please because whether the government’s doing it or not, if that’s the government’s role should society not force the government to fulfill its role rather than replace it with a competitive model that may end up with some children on the losing end like I described.


Matt Wingard:

Well I’d argue that there are children on the losing end right now. But I would disagree that a competitive model doesn’t still achieve the goal that you’re after that I think we’re all after which is that people are entitled to a free public education. In a voucher system they’re still getting, and I would submit that any school that provides education to that child using that voucher is proving them with a public education. It’s a publicly funded education. Even if it’s a private Catholic school that’s educating that child, we as the taxpayers paid for that public education to be provided to that child. It just happens to be that’s the school that the parent chose.

On your question of flammable pajamas and the Ford Pinto, I would ask this question, “Where’s the Ford Pinto and the flammable pajamas now?” The market pushed those out. When we have schools that fail, where are they? They reopen the next year and they continue to do business. I would make the argument that there are Ford Pintos across this country in education that continue to operate year after year and there’s no pressure for them to get pushed out of the marketplace.

And I guess the last point I’d make is that I think we have to ask ourselves when we want to provide this free public education to everyone is, “Who really should control that? Should the adults in the system control the money that’s provided….The point of that money is to provide a free public education for that child. Should the adults in the system control it or should the consumer, the child and the parent—the people it’s entitled for, should they control it?”