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The Executive Branch Must Act Within Its Authority

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Published in the Galveston County Daily News April 17, 2025 Back on January 13th and 20th 2014 we wrote columns as two of the Three Musketeers saying without an honest education, one that teaches the truth of history, no nation will survive. In the 1770's American colonists were literate (able to read, write, and cipher with great competence). When Thomas Payne published Common Sense, it became the most read writing in America, even more than the Bible. Without this intellectual competence the "American experiment" wouldn't have been possible. The significance of education has not changed, yet in comparing the current results, America ranks toward the bottom of the list of developed nations even though we continue to spend vast amounts of resources on educating our children. Thirty years ago, New Zealand sought answers on how to improve its nation's education. They embarked on a fundamental reform of their primary and secondary schools based on freedom of choice and accountability. In one bold move, they gave every parent the right to send their child to the school of their choice, and allowed centrally-provided per capita funding to follow the enrollment choice of the family. New Zealand unleashed a powerful natural truth: competition breeds innovation, improvement, and results. It recognized parents had a "fundamental right" to determine the way their children are educated and, in the process, brought to bear another important concept: Freedom of Choice! Parents could send their children to the school the parent, not the state, believed was in the best interest of their children! The result was staggering. After a few years, New Zealand obtained 7th in the world standings. Today, in America, many businesses complain they need to train (or retrain) new employees. Some can't even read or compute well enough to function in the business world Even though we see his opponents throwing up lawsuit after lawsuit, Donald Trump is proceeding with emasculating the Department of Education (DOE). Since its inception, DOE hasn't been effective in improving the competence of our young people. We contend education is a state/local matter not the responsibility of the federal government and that eliminating DOE entirely is a step in the right direction. Our state legislature is currently considering "school choice" legislation. It is designed to provide families with Educational Savings Accounts (ESAs) where about $10,000 will be allocated annually for each student in order to make private education available. The bill would allow families to select from "participating private schools" that best meet their needs, thereby expanding the number of choices. The measure is expected to give priority to low-income and special needs families. In the 2023-2024 school year there were approximately 5.5 million students enrolled in Texas public schools. It's there won't be enough money to go around. So only a small fraction of those eligible will get the benefits. We support the concept of allowing families to choose the school(s) that best meet their needs. We also know, from the New Zealand example, that competition between schools, both public and private, is a good thing that encourages all of them to improve. However, the jury is still out on whether taxpayer money should be used to fund private schools.
	About the Authors and Columnists 2025 Bill Sargent and Mark Mansius have written over 300 guest columns and editorials over the last ten years for numerous publications and continue to do so. Bill lives in Galveston, Texas and Mark in St. Georges, Utah. Both Bill and Mark ran against each other in the 2012 Republican Primary for Texas Congressional District 14. Since then they have become close friends and colleagues.
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