By Billy McCullers
Lake Okeechobee News reader
Public education should be an option provided by government, not the standard by which government decides whether every other form of education is legitimate.
There is a real danger in allowing the government to provide one option and then letting that same government use its own option as the measuring stick for everybody else.
Public schools are one way to educate a child. Private schools are another. Home education is another. Virtual education, tutoring, apprenticeships, co-ops, and other models all have their place. Different children and different families have different needs.
The problem starts when we assume that public education is the default and everything else has to prove that it is “equivalent” to it.
That puts government in the strange position of being both a competitor and the referee.
A homeschool diploma should not be treated as questionable simply because it did not come from a government school. A private school education should not have to imitate a public school education to be legitimate. And access to jobs, colleges, athletics, licenses, or public programs should not depend on whether someone chose the government-provided education option.
Government can set reasonable requirements where there is a legitimate public need. But those requirements should measure what actually matters: knowledge, qualifications, skills, safety, or competency. They should not simply ask whether someone followed the government’s preferred path to get there.
Public education has an important place in our society.
But providing an option does not make government the owner of education, and it should not make the government option the standard by which every other path is judged.
