Celebrate Freedom, Dammit – Or Else!

Legislation creating a “Celebrate Freedom Week” passed by a vote of 80 to 18 in the Oklahoma House of Representatives today. It now goes to the state Senate for consideration.

According to a House press release, “House Bill 1874 by Rep. Dennis Johnson (R-Duncan) would designate ‘Celebrate Freedom Week’ for Oklahoma schools the same week that Veteran's Day is marked in November. The week would be used to instruct students in the importance of the Declaration of Independence, the United States Constitution, and the Bill of Rights and other founding documents and historical American figures.”

Sounds good, right? I mean, who can be against freedom? Thankfully, this legislation is peppered with the heartwarming language of freedom – phrases like “shall ensure,” “shall observe,” “shall require,” “shall adopt rules,” and “shall provide that … students … study and recite.” There’s nothing like the coerced celebration of freedom, I always say.

Seriously now, I realize the bill’s authors have the best of intentions. Believe me, I know the difference between the good guys and the bad guys at 23rd and Lincoln, and the 18 legislators who voted against this bill are definitely not the good guys.

Nevertheless, even though the bill’s goal is laudable, there’s something slightly amiss about a heavily unionized socialist enterprise – one which gets its students and its money by brute force – coercing the celebration of freedom. I’m with Thomas Hodgskin on this one: “Men had better be without education than be educated by their rulers.”

Something tells me that in this newfound celebration of freedom the government’s educators will somehow forget to mention our nation’s legacy of educational freedom. Remember, for 200 years in American history – essentially from the mid-1600s to the mid-1800s – public schooling as we know it today did not exist. Our forefathers were educated privately – at home, in independent, church-related schools, or in community-sponsored schools.

So here's an idea. Rather than “celebrating” freedom, the Republican-controlled House of Representatives should actually secure the people’s freedom. Parents should have the right and the ability (through tax cuts or tax credits) to freely choose the safest and best schools for their children.

Now that would be some freedom worth celebrating.

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