Terrorism and the economy are the primary concerns of conservatives while more free taxpayer funded programs and hand(bail)outs for unions are important issues for liberals. However, the real battle for America’s survival is being waged within the public school classrooms and frankly my friends – we’re losing!

By far the greatest threat to our republic is our public educational system. The socialist indoctrination of our children is out of control. Many people that have no children or those whose children are grown feel that whatever curriculum being taught in our schools is no longer their concern.

Many of our school teachers, government officials, police officers, firefighters, military personnel, bus drivers, and tradesmen just to name a few are educated in the public school system many times with dismal and often devastating results. Many of these people overcome the indoctrination and become productive members of society but this is often the exception, not the rule.

A sad reality is that most Americans care little about what their children are leaning on a daily bases but somehow expect them to grow up and be responsible productive citizens.

The most powerful lobbying and political groups in the United States are the public school teacher’s unions and associations for educators, scary but true. Politicians for the most part are terrified of the teacher’s unions because they yield so much power with parents who make up the electorate. Mess with the teachers and you can say goodbye to your political career.

Due to my intense passion for children’s education I once was recruited by a Chamber of Commerce educational committee in south Louisiana to help lead an educational task force and gladly accepted the position. Our primary focus was on two issues, one was they wanted to know the major differences in curriculum and teaching methods between parochial, private, and religious schools and that of the disastrous public school system. Second, the committee wanted to know how education in general was affecting the current and future economies of Louisiana.

Our team took this assignment very serious and began our analysis immediately. The more we studied the format utilized by the public school system the more interested we became. I was dumbfounded by our findings and the committee was thrilled by our initial report and pushed us to expand our investigation. You are probably thinking that we were confronted with opposition from staff members and so-called educators during our inquiries but we experienced just the opposite; they were proud of their system and happy to provide more than enough material and statistics.

One morning I received a phone call from the committee chairperson and told rudely that our group was being disbanded and my participation in any educational research on behalf of the Chamber was no longer welcomed without explanation. This troubled me for a long time because we had received very little resistance and only praise for our efforts.

It turns out that during one of my visits to a high school and during a discussion with a teacher I briefly mentioned that my two daughters were home-schooled. The teacher contacted her union rep who contacted the spineless school board president who then angrily protested our program to yet another gutless wonder who was then president of the Chamber and so on and on…

Well, I completed my investigation on my own and eventually presented my detailed research report to the campaign staff of then Republican candidate Bobby Jindal back in 2003 just before moving to South Carolina.

For one example, though public school program is my least favorite system I recommended that we offer three diploma/certificate options available upon graduating from public school; here’s a brief description of each program:

The third option would teach most of option one but concentrate primarily on the fundamentals of a wide variety of skilled vocational trades such as plumbing, electrical, auto repair, carpentry, welding, etc. This program could also include training in the retail and manufacturing sectors.

A student can earn two diplomas by completing both option one and three or options two and three.

I strongly advocate school choice and firmly believe that parents should ultimately decide how their children are educated. School choice is often reduced to just cheep talking points by many so-called conservative republicans and the concept is always profoundly demonized by the union controlled Democratic Party.

The term "school choice" means providing parents the power and flexibility to choose the school they want their child to attend and or the method in which they are taught. School choice means a variety of educational opportunities for all families and not just for the wealthy.

Millions of American children are ensnared in schools that continue to fail with curriculums that are not geared for real life applications. Programs should include vouchers, opportunity scholarships, special needs scholarships, and corporate and individual scholarship tax credit programs just to name a few.

Liberals run around yelling that woman should have the right to choose whether their babies live or die but deny them the right to choose how they are educated if they happen to make it through the heavily promoted abortion phase – interesting isn’t it?

The best way to improve education is to put parents in charge and provide proven options such as open enrollment, vouchers, homes schooling, etc. Tax incentives must be included as part of this conversion. 

The education crisis in America affects low-income families the hardest. Until parents are given the option to use their tax dollars and choose the best educational system for their children then the quality of life in America will continue to diminish.