State Senator Aaron Osmond raised some eyebrows recently when he called for an end to compulsory education in Utah. Supporters admit it's a radical idea, but say it's necessary to put control of a child's education back where it belongs - in parents' hands. Monday, we're asking some fundamental questions about our education system: What is it for? What do we sacrifice in providing free public education? And finally, what's at stake for the individual and the community if people can choose to dropout?
Guests:
- Paul Mero, Sutherland Institute, Ditch compulsory education in Utah? Yes! Mero also co-wrote a paper called "Removing Classrooms from the Battlefield: Liberty, Paternalism, and the Redemptive Promise of Educational Choice."
- Historian Tracy Steffes, author of
School, Society, and State: A New Education to Govern Modern America, 1890-1940 [Amazon/Indiebound]
- Andrea Rorrer, Utah Education Policy Center
