Federal Government + School Choice = Oxymoron

Chris Kinnan is the director of public affairs for FreedomWorks, an organization advocating lower taxes, less government, and more freedom. Which is why it's so puzzling that in his latest column Mr. Kinnan encourages federal intervention in New Orleans that would only contradict the three pillars of his group's mission.

Kinnan argues that a portion of the billions of dollars the federal government is flinging at New Orleans in the form of hurricane disaster relief should be spent to "create emergency school-choice vouchers for the children displaced by Katrina."

As part of the overall aid plan, Congress is contemplating billions in educational assistance. With so much at stake, Congress must get this right, and there is an obvious solution: The U.S. Department of Education should administer an "Emergency School Voucher" program. School vouchers get aid directly to the student, and empower parents and children [to] take real control over their education. The federal voucher could follow each young evacuee student to their new school, whether they are settled in a district in northern Louisiana or Texas or beyond. A lot of these students need immediate assistance, but they're not located in a permanent home yet, and vouchers will give each individual student maximum flexibility as their circumstances warrant. The program could be a powerful example of connecting students and educational dollars and giving true educational choice. In fact, if the voucher were large enough, we could even see school districts across the country actively competing to attract evacuee students. That would be a pleasant irony after so much neglect in their own failing public schools.

I appreciate Mr. Kinnan's support of school choice, but encouraging further federalization of public education is anathema to the views of anyone who espouses less government and more freedom, and it makes me wonder how FreedomWorks could sponsor such an article.

To be fair, Kinnan envisions a plan where emergency school vouchers could "provide a path to a permanent local school-choice program throughout New Orleans," which ostensibly could then be used as a model for the rest of the country. And I also realize that Kinnan would like to capitalize on these federal outlays, many of which are apt to find their way into the pockets of corrupt officials in New Orleans. But he's crazy if he thinks this would ever originate at the federal level.

Put simply, the federal government is the problem. Instead of assuming even more responsibility over the states, the U.S. Department of Education should be turned into a parking garage. This, of course, is unlikely. But local school choice programs don't develop with the help of the federal government - they develop despite the federal government!

Unfortunately, Mr. Kinnan makes the mistake that far too many "conservatives" today make. He automatically assumes that the federal government bears responsibility for the problems we should be solving ourselves. Simultaneously, he misses a golden opportunity to outline the true lesson that Hurricane Katrina has taught us. When the chips are down, American citizens - who collectively already have donated about a billion dollars to victims of Katrina - are far more capable of rescuing those in need than our bureaucrats are.

If we're willing to donate to people, many of whom were - let's face it - unintelligent enough to expect the government to save them from a hurricane, why would anyone think we wouldn't donate schooling to poor children if it meant fostering intelligence in the first place?