What do modern light bulbs, gas cans, and dishwashers have in common? The answer is that all three have been made worse, and more expensive, by meddlesome regulation.
The modern dishwasher is half as efficient at getting that baked ziti off your favorite casserole dish as it was in 1983, thanks to energy and water use standards set by federal regulators. From President Reagan's first term to present, the average time of a dishwasher cycle has literally doubled to a whopping 140 minutes.
President Trump tried to roll back some of these regulations to provide consumers access to quicker appliances when he was in office, but was met with a peculiar opponent: dishwasher manufacturers. They complained that rolling back regulations would require them to invest in new technologies to deliver new products to consumers, who inevitably would prefer a faster dishwasher.
There are two important lessons from this example. First, left to their own devices, most technologies improve dramatically over time. They increase in functionality, ease of use, and yes, speed. Millions of regulations, at both the federal and state level, slow this natural progress, and in some cases, reverse it.
Second, established companies within regulated industries very frequently enjoy the benefits of overregulation, because regulations can deter new competitors and new technology from entering the market. This tendency isn't in the interest of consumers. Imagine if the horse and buggy industry at the turn of the 20th century had convinced Congress to outlaw Henry Ford's automobile.
In recent weeks, the Biden administration has twice made education news. First, Education Secretary Miguel Cardona refused to acknowledge that parents are the ‘primary stakeholders’ in their children’s education. Then, Attorney General Merrick Garland tapped the FBI to begin investigating unruly parents at school board meetings.
Cardona’s comments, and Garland’s dubious use of federal law enforcement to address local questions of meeting decorum, come amid a torrential uptick in parental activism.
Schools, whether public or private, are important tools, but the burden of a child’s outcome rests on his or her parents’ shoulders.
A parent’s role in the education of their child is not passive. It was never intended to be delegated, though too often it is. Candidly, this passed burden is unfair to both our children and their teachers. So it is encouraging to see parents engaging in unprecedented numbers. That activism should not be chilled with threats of FBI investigation but channeled to productive outcomes. In comes opportunity.
Options and specialization are prominent features in the modern economy. Last week, I drove past a store that sells nothing but different olive oils. And if people in my little central Mississippi community can pick between hundreds of kinds of oil for a salad, surely parents should have options when it comes to the education of their children. Teachers should have options when it comes to how and where they teach, too.
For years we’ve said that neither a zip code nor the size of your bank account should dictate whether a child has access to an education setting that works for them. The recent pain points bubbling up at school board meetings only serve as proof of the importance of education options, whether it’s ensuring that there is a safe environment to continue learning during a pandemic, or that what your student is learning is accurate and doesn’t violate your value system.
Parents don’t necessarily need to bend school boards to their will, so much as they need to be a part of demanding and helping to create the policy environment that allows for diversity of choice in a robust marketplace.
Parents who are fighting for your child’s education, don’t give up. This year, Empower will promote a bold education agenda aimed at expanding opportunities for families and providing educators in our communities the support and freedom they need to be more effective in the classroom.
Russ Latino is President of Empower Mississippi.
