Parents over unions

“We are organizing across race, zip code, and background to reclaim our democracy and finally put our kids first. Together, we are building the power to take back our future.” So states the Kids over Corporations project. This project is led by the North Carolina Association of Educators (NCAE). Parents may know the NCAE as the organization responsible for their child’s forced absence from school on May 1.

The May Day NCAE protests attracted local and national attention. While this event drew a crowd, the Kids over Corporations project is the longer-term movement to assert state and union control over education in North Carolina.

The project seeks to restore “the billions of dollars in tax breaks and vouchers taken from classrooms.” It aims to “reclaim our democracy.” But if successful, what would this movement accomplish? Surprisingly, a 20^th-century Austrian Nobel Prize recipient can help North Carolinians navigate the debate swirling around education.

Friedrich von Hayek is best known for his work “The Road to Serfdom.” But another of his books, “The Constitution of Liberty,” devotes attention to the issue of “public” (i.e., state-controlled) education. Hayek focuses on two issues relevant to the debate over school funding: the power exercised by those who control education and the importance of which values teachers impart to students.

The Power of Educational Control

Power and control are two words that come to mind when reading content published by the Kids over Corporations project. They present a list of “demands,” one of which is to “eliminate private school vouchers.” The project seeks to “take back control of our future.”

Controlling the future includes eliminating parents’ ability to fund their preferred educational option through vouchers. The union wants control of children’s education at the expense of a parent’s right to choose. The current debate can be reduced to who exercises power — the state (and by extension the NCAE) or parents.

Hayek praised vouchers. He asserted that, “it would undoubtedly be possible to leave the organization and management of education entirely to private efforts, with the government providing merely the basic finance and ensuring a minimum standard for all schools where the vouchers could be spent. Another great advantage of this plan is that parents would no longer be faced with the alternative of having to accept whatever education the government provides.”

In Hayek’s view, parents hold power in a voucher system. This is right and good. Parents are the primary guardians of their children. Teachers are not. Unions are not. The government is not.

Both the NCAE and proponents of vouchers agree that education powerfully forms young minds, transforms society, and fosters fulfilled lives. It is precisely this great power that leads Hayek to promote educational options.

Hayek wrote, “The more highly one rates the power that education can have over men’s minds, the more convinced one should be of the danger of placing this power in the hands of any single authority.”

The work of the Kids over Corporations project places too much power in the hands of the state and the teachers’ union. Eliminating private vouchers forces many parents into a public system that is not of their choosing. Limiting options also enables promotion of values that are at odds with those of many parents.

Education and Values

Hayek recognized that all education is “guided by definite values [which] is… the source of real dangers in any system of public education.” He also provided an example from his mid-twentieth-century context: “In multinational states, the problem of who is to control the school system tends to become the chief source of friction between nationalities.” Centralized education begets tension.

While struggle between nationalities is less likely in our context, conflict between contrasting worldviews is rampant. For example, the NCAE describes DEI as “the values that make our public schools safe, welcoming, and strong.” Many parents, especially many who use vouchers, reject this position and see DEI as divisive and oppressive. By eliminating private school vouchers and funneling students into a more highly state- and union-controlled public school setting, organizations like the NCAE can assert their values over those of parents.

The May Day protests in Raleigh provided a visible manifestation of a force seeking greater control over North Carolina children. North Carolinians should reject the message of Kids over Corporations and embrace educational freedom. We must elevate parents over unions.

“Parents over unions” was originally published on www.carolinajournal.com.