In Support of Rick Jore

By the Liberal gnashing of teeth and tearing of clothing, the appointment of Rick Jore as the new Chairman of the Education Committee must be a wise choice. I admire Scott Sales' courage to appoint a man who has different views from the established government education monopoly and the Liberal teacher's unions. Instead of going along with the same old, same old, he might actually do some good and make improvements on how we educate our kids.

I found this to be the best article regarding Rick's appointment and his beliefs on education.

He believes in school choice for parents. This puts the education of our kids, mine included, in the hands of their parents and the free market. Give me tax credits if I choose to send my kids to a private school. If enough kids leave a public school, for a "better" school, that public school will need to improve to attract those kids back, thus ensuring a better education for those kids. Free market competition.

Representative Jore puts forth the concept of parental educational choice as an alternative premise to compulsory public school attendance. “The current system is monopolistic in nature. There is compulsory funding and compulsory attendance, which is the equivalent of providing a guaranteed clientele. If we implement school choice, that will introduce free market ideas and diminish the consequences of a monopolistic system,” Jore told the MNA Press reporter.

One of Jore’s ideas is to provide parents with tuition tax credits. This would be a win-win solution, in that parents who opt out of public school education for their children, and choose either to home school or go with an alternate private school education, would receive a tax credit of, potentially, $1,000. In past legislative sessions, it has been noted that tuition tax credits could mean prospective savings of millions of dollars for the state. It costs roughly $8,000 a year to educate one student. The state would give parents $1,000 of their money back, thus negating double payment (taxes and tuition) for their child’s education. The state would realize a $7,000 savings per student, per year. “These are rough numbers, but you get the point” emphasized Jore.

He also challenges Liberal's favorite way of passing laws, the court system. He also rightly believes in the local school board's authority for making decisions.

Jore also maintains that the legislature, not the courts, has the responsibility to determine proper funding levels. “It is not the role of the courts to dictate how much money is allocated to schools,” declared Jore. “And it’s not the legislature’s role to interfere with the workings of the local school boards. It’s up to the trustees to understand and realize their constitutional authority. I don’t advocate the state getting involved with local school board authority, but it’s important for the board members not to feel that they have to automatically acquiesce to administrators and the local educational establishment.”

And then there is this radical quote from his web site:

“I include education and family in the same category because education is in fact an extension of the family and parents have an inalienable right and responsibility, along with a compelling interest, to control the educational setting and content for their children.”