207 subsidy and education - editorialpinups

In 2010 we published https://www.editorialpinups.com/003-four-things.html the supporting article “The Four Things We Don’t Pay Cash Four”. The basic premise is that these four items are purchased with loans or subsidies.  Housing is bought by most using a mortgage.  Medical problems are generally covered by some form of insurance for most. College education is entrenched in loans, grants, and scholarships.  Automobiles, not only purchase but many times now auto repairs.

 

One of the big issues in the 2026 mid-term elections is affordability. The United States has a unique construct.  There are fifty states which translates to fifty legislative laboratories.    While prices have a natural tendency to fluctuate, some prices go up and never come down. The big question is, what causes certain important prices to rise?

 

Today we will discuss education including K – 12.

 

Practical education, fixing things, installing things.  Plumbing, electrical work, driving a forklift, running heavy machinery, in some parts auto mechanics. Practical education has historically been taught through apprenticeships. There was some book learning and there was much hands on learning.  The apprenticeships were generally handled through employers and union halls.

 

Other learning, basics, college preparatory, college classes in areas of engineering, accounting, computer sciences (although you can learn to be an expert in computer sciences by learning through YouTube and other medial locations, many for free) are taught in schools, primary and secondary schools and then colleges, technical learning centers and for profit learning companies.

 

I taught in the technical college environment, adult education evening classes before You Tube and Social Media. Courses were affordable.  People paid cash, no subsidies.  For me it was a good side income.  The school benefited as Windows 3.0 just came out and there were no classes.  I had been working on a contract at the Minnesota Department of Revenue starting to implement Windows 3.0.  I took what I was using in industry and created college classes.  Those classes were in advance of what the day program took two years to do.

 

Because there are so many options to learning, why should government be subsidizing one over the other?

 

Before the United States became a country, education had been primarily been the responsibility of the parents and the various churches. In some cases small communities worked together to educate their children by alternating the teaching tasks.

 

Public schools had a beginning that could be questionable and honorable at the same time.  Per search.brave.com here is a summary:

 

1642 Massachusetts Law: The General Court enacted the first legislation requiring parents and guardians to ensure their children could read and understand religious principles and laws.  

 

1647 Old Deluder Satan Act: This Massachusetts Bay Colony law mandated that towns with 50 or more families hire a teacher, and those with 100 or more families hire a Latin grammar schoolmaster, establishing the principle of community-supported schooling.  

 

1837 Common School Movement: Horace Mann, as the first secretary of the Massachusetts Board of Education, championed the creation of a universal, non-sectarian, and free public school system modeled after Prussian standards.  

 

1852 Compulsory Attendance: Massachusetts passed the first compulsory education law in the U.S., requiring children to attend school, a model eventually adopted by all states by 1918.

 

According to https://www.raceforward.org/reports/education/historical-timeline-public-education-us there are some additional entries:

 

1647

The General Court of the Massachusetts Bay Colony decrees that every town of fifty families should have an elementary school and that every town of 100 families should have a Latin school. The goal is to ensure that Puritan children learn to read the Bible and receive basic information about their Calvinist religion.

 

1779

Thomas Jefferson proposes a two-track educational system, with different tracks in his words for "the laboring and the learned." Scholarship would allow a very few of the laboring class to advance, Jefferson says, by "raking a few geniuses from the rubbish."

 

1785

The Continental Congress (before the U.S. Constitution was ratified) passes a law calling for a survey of the "Northwest Territory" which included what was to become the state of Ohio. The law created "townships," reserving a portion of each township for a local school. From these "land grants" eventually came the U.S. system of "land grant universities," the state public universities that exist today. Of course in order to create these townships, the Continental Congress assumes it has the right to give away or sell land that is already occupied by Native people.

 

1790

Pennsylvania state constitution calls for free public education but only for poor children. It is expected that rich people will pay for their children's schooling.

 

1805

New York Public School Society formed by wealthy businessmen to provide education for poor children. Schools are run on the "Lancasterian" model, in which one "master" can teach hundreds of students in a single room. The master gives a rote lesson to the older students, who then pass it down to the younger students. These schools emphasize discipline and obedience qualities that factory owners want in their workers.

 

1817

A petition presented in the Boston Town Meeting calls for establishing of a system of free public primary schools. Main support comes from local merchants, businessmen and wealthier artisans. Many wage earners oppose it, because they don't want to pay the taxes.

 

1820

First public high school in the U.S., Boston English, opens.

 

1827

Massachusetts passes a law making all grades of public school open to all pupils free of charge.

 

1820-1860

The percentage of people working in agriculture plummets as family farms are gobbled up by larger agricultural businesses and people are forced to look for work in towns and cities. At the same time, cities grow tremendously, fueled by new manufacturing industries, the influx of people from rural areas and many immigrants from Europe. During the 10 years from 1846 to 1856, 3.1 million immigrants arrive a number equal to one eighth of the entire U.S. population. Owners of industry needed a docile, obedient workforce and look to public schools to provide it.

 

1837

Horace Mann becomes head of the newly formed Massachusetts State Board of Education. Edmund Dwight, a major industrialist, thinks a state board of education was so important to factory owners that he offered to supplement the state salary with extra money of his own.

 

1840s

Over a million Irish immigrants arrive in the United States, driven out of their homes in Ireland by the potato famine. Irish Catholics in New York City struggle for local neighborhood control of schools as a way of preventing their children from being force-fed a Protestant curriculum.

 

This is just a beginning history.  Honorable, yes.  Make sure people are taught the basics. Questionable, yes.  There is a disagreement on what should be taught.  I included the histories above to show a few of the motivations to offer education.  The common theme seems to be indoctrination of one type or another.  Catholic parents wanting to shield their children from force-fed Protestant curriculum. Owners of industry needing an obedient work force.

 

Funding of schools seems to have an agenda connected to the funding source.  Religious schools in their purest forms are associated with their religions.  Massachusetts goal was to ensure that Puritan children learn to read the Bible and receive basic information about their Calvinist religion. New York Public School Society formed by wealthy businessmen to provide education for poor children with the intent to have the schools emphasize discipline and obedience qualities that factory owners want in their workers.

 

In today’s environment the issues of indoctrination is an issue.  The indoctrination this time comes with controversy.  Natural science is being challenged by synthetic science.  Rolls in the home are being defined and belittled.  Books with subject matter more versed for adults are being suggested for students as young as Kindergarten.  Science and history is being limited for reasons of agenda.

 

The basic concept of educating children is not rocket science.  Arithmetic, 1 + 1 = 2, 3 * 2 = 6, etc. Proper teaching of science requires the ability to also teach curiosity methods.

 

But controllers of education funding in many areas are trying dictate their agenda.

 

The educational funding construct must be free of agenda.  Should tax money be allowed for only public schools? History may say otherwise.  Should those who fund the schools have a say in how it is spent?  If that is the case, I want my education dollars to go to making entrepreneurs.  Does the government agree?

 

We can agree with this.  There is a tremendous amount of money spent on education that does not go to educating students. Per KCCI television in Des Moines, a new report from Common Sense Institute Iowa states in Iowa that since 2014 student enrollment has dropped while administrative staffing increased by 11.8%. at the same time, administrative staffing increased by 11.8%.  If the administrative staffing followed the enrollment numbers since the pandemic, there would be 202 fewer administrators today. Quoting the news story, “The salaries of these additional administrators total $27 million annually, which the report noted could fund an average salary for 400 teachers in Iowa.”

 

On the issue of funding, Iowa and a number of other states offer vouchers for public funds following students to private schools. From search.brave.com here is a summary of Iowa school requirements and exemptions for participation.:

 

Funding Amount: Schools receive an ESA amount equal to the state’s per-pupil funding for public schools, which is $8,148 for the 2026-27 school year.  

 

Selective Admissions: Unlike public schools, participating private schools are not required to accept all students and may limit enrollment based on performance, behavior, or other criteria.  

 

Exemptions: Accredited private schools are exempt from many Iowa Department of Education requirements that apply to public districts, including mandates for licensed teachers, specific curricula (such as health or career exploration), and free meal programs.  

 

Lack of Accountability: Critics note that these schools are not subject to the same budgeting, public meeting, or audit obligations as public schools, leading to concerns about financial transparency and the use of taxpayer funds.  

 

Special Education: While Iowa state law extends some special education supports to non-public students, these schools are not bound by the full Individuals with Disabilities Education Act (IDEA) and may deny admission to students with disabilities if they lack the capacity or resources to serve them.

 

 

Understanding educaitonal funding leads to some questions.  First, what exactly are the requirements that public schools have and are they necessary?  How did private schools survive in the past strictly on tuition and not subsidy?  What does the average taxpayer expect from schools private or public?

 

Those questions need to be discussed as they are tied to the price of education.

 

But the big question that needs to be asked is this, Why have the subsidies now cause reports of tuition increases at private schools?  Looking at both the kK-12 and also college, subsidies, loans, endowments, lottery proceeds and fundraisers have not curtailed the inflation in education.  They have spurred increased costs and hiring of non teaching personnel.  It has also not been used to acquire or develop technologies that could help preserve the small rural schools.

 

Voucher and subsidy programs do not drain money from public education, it inflates the cost of all education!