# How to Start Your Own School / How to Start Your Own Private School By Robert Love / By Samuel L. Blumenfeld **URL:** **By** William Danks **Published:** August 1, 1974 --- “The same holds true of course for all other areas of public education— from kindergarten to senior high school.” In his analysis of university education in America as a unique industry, economist James Buchanan succinctly noted the following characteristics: “Those who consume its product do not purchase it; those who produce it do not sell it, and those who finance it do not control it.” Buchanan then concluded that it was not surprising that such extreme deviations from normal business procedure resulted in similarly extreme deviations from the functional order and efficiency produced by such procedure. The same holds true of course for all other areas of public education— from kindergarten to senior high school. People with no children are forced to pay for the education of others’ children. Parents with many children pay no more (actually less, of course, due to tax advantages) than those with few or the childless—yet all their kids get a full “education.” Teachers and administrators perform their services either totally exempt from the control and choice of parents and children, or subject to the control of some faction at the expense of everyone else. In neither case is there justice or efficiency. This has nothing to do with a lack of good intentions, dedication, integrity, or any other good personal quality—which, admittedly, are not entirely absent from the public school establishment. The problem lies in the political nature of the educational system itself. Real reform must confront the most fundamental question of all: should there be a public (i.e., tax-supported) school system at all? For libertarians, of course, there is no question at all. There simply should not be tax-supported anything, since there shouldn’t be any taxes! But for more “conservative” (right or left) educators, it is a very radical question, one which has only recently been considered seriously. People like Ivan Illich and other anti-“schooling” advocates (such as the late Paul Goodmen, and sometimes, John Holt) seem to solve the problem quite handily by rejecting schools themselves, but they actually retain the root of the problem because of faulty political-economic thinking which al-lows for tax-supported “non-schools,” “anti-schools,” “learning places,” or whatever. But a school by any other name to those forced to pay for it, is still a coercive institution, no matter how freely structured it may be for students. Truly radical school reform must consider parents, teachers, and administrators, as well as children. The truly radical direction in reform must be towards voluntary (market) relationships between these actors. Everything else has been tried, and, no matter how “radical,” is now simply part of the problem. Parents must have at least the choice and power available to them in buying any other commodity or service. Teachers must learn that they are not divinely ordained to be classroom dictators, but rather that they are sellers of a service that customers have a right to bargain for, and even reject. Over a decade ago, Nathaniel Branden most neatly and accurately reworded the question of “public education” as follows: Should the government be permitted to remove children forcibly from their homes, with or without their parents’ consent, and subject the children to educational training and procedures of which the parents may or may not approve? Should citizens have their wealth expropriated to support an educational system which they may or may not sanction, and to pay for the education of children not their own? Robert Love’s book is subtitled: “A Guide for the Radical Right, the Radical Left, and Everybody In-Between Who’s Fed Up With Public Education.” It is an apt description. Although Love states at the beginning that the book is a guide to alternatives rather than a critique of existing public education, he implicitly develops such a critique along the way. As a guide the book is especially useful since it has grown out of and describes in some detail, the development of an actual private-school success story—the Wichita Collegiate School. Love is a libertarian and fully recognizes the inherent advantages of a market approach to education over a political approach. He convincingly describes the reasons why private education, based on a proprietary model, is the only way in which parents and children can have real control over their schools. The presentation of Wichita’s market philosophy and the ways in which that philosophy was employed in dealing with such problems as tuition, accreditation, faculty, and relations with parents, makes for inspiring reading. Blumenfeld’s book is somewhat different in approach. The subtitle of his _How to Start Your Own Private School_ is “And Why You Need One.” Starting with a frightening (and saddening) account of his own experiences as a substitute teacher in the public schools of a Boston suburb, he moves on to develop his own analysis of why the public school system has failed. Included in this analysis is a detailed history of compulsory attendance laws and other chilling aspects of the public school tradition. Blumenfeld describes the whole movement for independent schools, the success of proprietary education, Southern schools, and—most importantly—detailed instructions on getting started, financing, curriculum, faculty, management, and accreditation. In many of these areas there is even more length (and depth) than in the Love book. In addition, seven appendices are included, covering such subjects as: independent school accrediting agencies, other relevent organizations, teacher placement agencies, insurance companies that handle independent schools, a select bibliography, books specifically on reading problems, and recommended periodicals. All in all, a most useful and informative reference. Despite the close similarity of titles and subject matter, these two works reinforce and complement each other with surprisingly little duplication. This is obviously the result of the originality and independence of their respective authors. Highly recommended as a set. _Reviewed by William Danks / Education / Love (172 Pages) / BFL Price $5.95 / Blumenfeld (381 Pages) / BFL Price $9.95_