Tuesday, January 4, 2011

If the Health Insurance Mandate Holds Up in Courts Can We Privatise Schooling

If the health insurance mandate holds up in the courts, it might mean that Government can charge people directly  for the schooling of their children and still require they be schooled or educated*.

The Government schools could start charging the rich and middle class directly to send their children to public schools?  This could save a lot of money for tax payers.

One of the stronger arguments for Government schools has been that it you are to require it you will need to pay for it.  People hate unfunded mandates.

A win for Obamacare would mean that Government can mandate individuals to spend on things without funding. 

NOTE: Obviously Government could subsidize the poor.

*My state actually has educational requirements for home schoolers in place of school attendance.  They actually requires annual evaluations of the children being home school and they must show that they have learned something.  

2 comments:

Unknown said...

That's an intriguing idea. I wonder whether it begins to open the door for introducing more market forces into schooling. After all, when people start paying directly (actually writing the check themselves) for services, I think they tend to be more discriminating and demand more choice.

Will A said...

The issue as I understand it is whether "regulate Commerce" means that law makers representing U.S. citizens can pass laws that require U.S. residents to purchase a certain good or service.

E.g. Privatize Social Security and force people to buy retirement services or privatize education and force people to buy educational services.

Conversely, if the health bill fails, we won't be able to privatize social security. It could be eliminated, but not privatized.

Since it is Republicans who are pushing to overturn the law, you can see clearly how they never wanted to privatize social security, but in fact want to eliminate it. Another sign of great long term strategy by Republicans.