Somewhere along the lines of history, people began being misinformed on what a “right to education” means.
It means, the government cannot interfere with its citizens using their resources on education.
When the state forces its citizens to fund state controlled schools, they are violating this right. The citizen no longer has the freedom to use his/her resources on education; the state interferes with this freedom and fully controls it.
The law does not mean you have to go to state funded public schools at all. You can go to a private school if you so choose, but if not you have to go to public school.
I fail to see how this is a bad thing in the slightest, seeing as I just graduated a public high school and I can tell you that if kids did not have to go, they wouldn’t, and they would be even more stupid than they are now.
Well, i am not sure if they would be more stupid though 
At least your comments do not prove anything like that so far.
If I choose to educate myself, am I free to not pay the part of my tax obligations that go into the public school system?
Well, if they think children have the right to education they’d best agree that we should abolish state schools asap.
How on Earth would a 6 year old child educate itself? In a libertarian society more than any other, the parents would have to work, so unless you are expecting a 6 year old to teach itself how to read, write and do arithmatic, I think state schooling is a must.
Not everyone can, or wants to go to private schools. Also, state schools provide thousands upon thousands of jobs.
So do concentration camps, maybe Germany should reopen those.
The way all children learn. Interaction and emulation.
Not necessarily true.
Kids teach themselves how to make websites and master complex video games. I don’t think you are giving kids enough credit, and I think you are giving state daycare too much credit.
Sure they do. And why couldn’t they? Private schools give a better education for a lower cost.
Is this a joke?
For one, you’re not thinking about how new Public schooling is. Secondly and most importantly, you are not thinking about the teachers who desire to teach the youth.
As a side note: I have yet to meet one teacher (and my wife is a teacher) that does not desire to get rid of the administration for it hasn’t a clue about teaching, kills creativity in the classroom, and thus kills the ability of the individual students to learn properly. The administration is a business and a tool of the State. The superintendent locally here got a huge pay off when he forced the teachers to use a specific software. The following year, the school rid the software cause it didn’t work, but got a new software program, superintendent got a huge pay off from the software company and the government gave large monies to the school district for following their statist program. The software has yet to work, and school is over in three days. Teachers know this tremendously. It’s not a secret at all. They talk about it often and in the open on how the State isn’t about the students and forces programs on the students and teachers to implement that do not help the students learn - at all. The public school system in the U.S. is failing for the most part due to this coercive activity that has nothing to do with students learning. Yet isn’t that what school’s about as you said? There’s lot more going on you have lot’s to learn.
So you consider it a form of benevolent slavery. Wasn’t that said about Negro Slavery? (Hint: it was)
Also, Broken window fallacy. If they hadn’t been forced to go to school, they would have done something else with their time. Likely something more productive then being indoctrinated by government employees.
Again, broken window fallacy.
If the state schools employed no one, those people would be employed in other ways. The money, if left in the hands of its rightful owners, would be spent on other things.
There is no such thing as creating jobs, all that government spending does is redirect scarce resources; away from the things other people want and towards the things they want. ie, steal.
In a libertarian society, there would be thousands upon thousands of jobs as people pay those who are educators to teach their 6-year old children. Or not, as is the choice of the individual; but if the parents want their child(ren) to be able to do at least as well as they do, they’ll pay for the education.
Public Service Announcement: tired, worn-out, refuted-to-death statist nonsense has no place here.
Blatant assertions won’t work here. Asking questions and showing a genuine interest in educating yourself will. If you will not do that, then I ask that you leave now, as you will not enjoy yourself here.
@TravisWadman, Here’s an essay on compulsory education, how it is used by the state, how it came to be, and what it will always try to evolve into: http://mises.org/web/2689
If you want to read it in book form, it’s available at the LvMI Store.
Only by stealing the resources from others. Its theft. Do you think theft is acceptable?
If school was not compulsory, I would guess that individuals would value school more.
Haha this is HILARIOUS. Please allow someone more intelligent to do the arguing for your side. Teachers CHOOSE to be teachers. Many of them (and I would know, as I have spoken to many of them) would not get good jobs elsewhere. Teacher get moderate salaries and benefits. They are able to buy houses, cars, support their families.
Also, I just graduated from public high school. I am happy. I have a good education that I got for extremely cheap and I got into a fantastic college (which is also extremely cheap and public btw).
This isn’t slavery at all.
Why on Earth would people not be happy with this? And you are 100% wrong about people doing something better with their time than going to school. I would NEVER attempt to learn calculus if I had not been forced to, but I was, and now I got an A in the class, passesd the IB examination with a near perfect score, and will study statistics in college. You are obviously extremely ignorant of teenagers today if you think they would do other things with their time.
Your broken window fallacy has been fixed.
Travis, why are you here?
How did you come to this conclusion?
School violence, lack of achievement standards in public school, teachers sexually assualting children. There are dozens of reasons.
Life lessons are better learned outside of the classroom. I promote education but it doesn’t have to be at the cost of coercion.
Personal experiences are not sufficient evidence. Its nice that you found something you like but that doesn’t gain you the right to force others and expect the same outcome. They have a choice in the matter and you are taking it from them by doing such.
Are you serious? You call what I am saying “blatant assertions”? Have you not read what your fellows Austrians write? Here is an example: “If school was not compulsory, I suppose people would value school more.”
I came here to learn and get educated, but I am finding out that Austrians have a distinct inability to convey their message without attacking the view points of others. In case you haven’t noticed, NOBODY cares about what you guys have to say in the real world. Your ideas are based on unprovable assertions (that is what you are accusing me of) regarding economics and philosophy.
You say my nonsense has been refuted to death? Then why is this my first time asking the question? Hopefully the founders of the Austrian school have more sense than you or else I reckon there is a reason it hasn’t had its place in history.
I have just come to learn what is supposedly “the truth” and you (a moderator of all people) attack me for asking a first time question. Am I just supposed to know the answers magically?
Self-victimization is getting pretty cliche these days.
" And you are 100% wrong about people doing something better with their time than going to school."
Clearly the learning attitude. Pompousity gets you +3 points around here.