Long before Wyoming became a state—decades before it even became a territory—private schools flourished across the nation. Parents built and maintained them. They were established on the conviction taken from the book of Proverbs, that if you “train up a child in the way he should go: and when he is old, he will not depart from it.”
Each school had its own unique recipe of culture, custom and religious commitment. They graduated generations of upstanding, wise and courageous citizens from George Washington and Thomas Jefferson to Abraham Lincoln and Teddy Roosevelt. They taught reading, writing and arithmetic. But they also taught history, natural science, philosophy and theology.
Those parents understood that strong communities require good citizens who know the truth about the physical world, human nature and God. America’s founders were so keen to raise good citizens that, in 1784, none other than Patrick Henry submitted a bill requiring the citizens of Virginia to pay a tax to fund its schools. It had strong support and looked like it would pass.
But James Madison looked deeper. No matter how desirable good schools might be, he warned that the power to tax and spend on schools threatens the very freedom that founds the American Republic.
In opposition to Henry and in correspondence with Thomas Jefferson, Madison penned Memorial and Remonstrance. In it, he demonstrated not that religious education threatens freedom, but that government funding inherently threatens religious freedom.
Not only did Madison’s writing kill Virginia’s attempt to insert government funding into education. his arguments became the backbone of the U.S. Constitution’s First Amendment.
Sadly, society soon forgot Madison’s warnings. Horace Mann led a movement to in the 1830s to create government-funded schools in every state. And he unwittingly proved Madison right.
State governments began to take money out of the pockets of the parents who were building community schools. And they used that money to build alternate schools in that same community. Starved of money and tempted by “free” education, parents across America abandoned their educational endeavors and sent their kids to government-run schools.
The marketplace always follows the money. Now, parents who want to become involved in their child’s education are working against market forces. They have to pay twice: first for an education that they did not choose; and second for the education that they want.
It’s as if the government saw people benefiting from delicious fried fish. So it laid a universal tax on its citizens to build a fleet of fish trucks. Of course, this would drain both discretionary income and potential customers from the fish trucks already keeping thriving businesses.
That’s what happened to the flourishing private schools of yesteryear. They didn’t close down because of natural market forces – but because every parent who wanted to benefit from private school education had to pay twice. That’s a hard sell.
That’s why Wyoming’s House of Representatives passed House Bill 199, the Wyoming Freedom Scholarship Act. Parents who want to pool their money with the government to educate their children should be free to do that. But parents who would rather educate their own children should not be required to pay twice. It is a modest move towards equalizing education market forces.
Wyoming spends $16,231 of taxpayer money per child annually, according to World Population Review. HB 199 returns $7,000 to the discretion of each parent for that education. The state would still keep $9,231 for a student it is no longer responsible to teach. That’s not fair, but at least it’s a move in the right direction.
Wyoming’s constitution requires “the establishment and maintenance of a complete and uniform system of public instruction.” It did not require that existing private schools be squeezed out of existence. But that’s what happened.
Now that we have the hindsight of 145 years, a modest correction of market forces is not only reasonable, it’s required. Society should maintain a system of public instruction without depriving parents of the financial resources to establish parallel schools of their own choosing. This is educational freedom.
The House passed HB 199 by a supermajority of 39-21, and the Senate Education Committee is scheduled to hear it Monday morning.
It should be debated on its merits. And Wyoming parents will definitely want to weigh in.
Jonathan Lange is a Lutheran Church—Missouri Synod pastor in Evanston and Kemmerer and serves the Wyoming Pastors Network. Follow his blog at https://jonathanlange.substack.com/. Email: JLange64@protonmail.com.
