Legalize education

I have long discussed my desire to legalize education. When dealing with people who don't know me, I tend to hold back. The reason for this is that most people won't understand what I mean. Even though I am not a writer, it seems like writing an explanation can help. If I ever have people questioning me for pushing the legalization of education, it might be nice to be able to link to a posted explanation.

The first thing that needs to be addressed is a simple question. What do I mean by education? There are multiple ways people define education, but most definitions fit one of two contradictory categories. One would be mental development. The other is schooling.

I have generally defined education as the development of skills and abilities as well as general mental development. I try to avoid using the term as a synonym for schooling for two reasons. The first is that there can be a lot of confusion between these terms. It might sound good that we should support education because education is a need. Unfortunately, far too many think this means that we should support an anti-educational schooling system because education is a need. The other reason is because there's already another good term for the other type of education, schooling.

What about legalization? This can get a little tricky because, technically speaking, there are no laws that prohibit education. There are, however, legal implications should anyone put the pursuit of an education over the pursuit of a piece of paper.

Schooling is an educationally restrictive environment that just about everyone is forced to attend. Any law that is designed to trap children in an anti-educational situation needs to be revoked. There are plenty of examples of laws along these lines.

We are forced to fund anti-educational institutions controlled by the government. If we want children to learn in an environment that actually allows children to learn, we must fund two approaches. We must fund the government's schools and the educational approach being taken. Low-income families have a difficult time justifying both, so they are more likely to keep their children under the control of our anti-educational government.

Some of our policies relating to college are similar. We look for ways to force taxpayers to fund colleges even if they don't learn well in that environment. In one form or another, we are all paying for college. This means that anyone who puts the pursuit of an education above the pursuit of a piece of paper is being financially punished by the government. To make matters worse, these policies fuel credentialism. This means that people who are pursuing the educations that are right for them are effectively funding discrimination against themselves.

Another concern is over-regulation of education. Even away from direct government control, the government passes numerous laws that they can apply to alternatives. These regulations are overwhelmingly based on expectations of the government-controlled model. Since the government-controlled model tends to hinder education, this gives the government the power to hinder education elsewhere.

Perhaps the worst of all legislation relating to education comes in the form of truancy laws. It is unconstitutional to deprive Americans of liberty without due process. Truancy laws codify the idea that children can't resist being locked away in mental prisons that systematically assault their fundamental rights and freedoms. I view truancy laws as blatantly unconstitutional and a direct attack on educational rights.

When I discuss the legalization of education, I am talking about the need to end government-imposed legal obstacles to a healthy education. We need to eliminate government constraints such as imposing financial punishments, over-regulation, and unconstitutional truancy laws. We need to end the government's insane power to restrict what, where, when, why, and how American citizens are allowed to learn. We need to support the right of every American citizen to pursue the educations that are right for them. Simply put, education should be treated as a fundamental human right, and we need to get the government out of the way.